Really long but rather interesting. I would ask my son to read it, but I he would jsut say. No Way! I lve it every day~ From [Seb's Open Research]
I seldom link to Blogdex Top 10 pieces, but this one is just too good to miss. Paul Graham presents an insightful description of the social structure of high school, offering an explanation for why nerds have such a hard time between ages 11 and 17.
Basically, "schools have no real purpose beyond keeping the kids all in one place for a certain number of hours each day". Meaninglessness ensures that life in school becomes a popularity contest, a zero-sum game where people who don't play full-time (i.e. "nerds" and "retards") finish last. Makes a lot of sense to me.
That severe disconnect between school and the real world is what I hope will ultimately kill school-as-we-know-it. In a connected world, I'm sure kids will find better ways of getting prepared for the world. With luck they'll get some help from teachers. Let them network with grownups for a change! (I know, not everyone wants to network with teenagers, but taken one at a time, in the presence of shared interests, I'm sure it can be pretty fulfilling on both ends. Look here for an inspiring start :-) )
I would take issue with how Graham depicts the "real" world, though. He seems to assume that the world that adults live in is actually pretty meaningful and not artificial. I don't know enough to be sure about this. [Seb's Open Research]
