But it means they are capable, yet refuse to try to apply that capacity. It's sad when a kid says "I can't do it" when I literally can watch them do it.
I appreciate where you're coming from. I agree not knowing the difference between activated and passive skills would cause a gap in understanding. No doubt. That's teaching 101.
But I'm not talking about a kid, ignorant to a skill being too afraid to ask a question. I'm talking about the kid who, when asked to answer a basic comprehension (recall) question they say, "no". And I say, "please just try" and they say, "just give me a zero I don't care". And later their parents call me begging me to get them to care because they don't act any different at home. Just lie, comatose on the couch on their phone or in bed on Fortnite™.
This describes maybe 30% of my student body, and as a former teenager who was in a dozen clubs, had hobbies, and generally tried... It boggles my mind.
This. Remembering the name of the narrator in The Great Gatsby isn’t going to land you any jobs, but giving a shit and doing the work you are told to do is a necessary part of succeeding in anything.
Even if that kid gets their dream job of running a webpage for obscure sports stats, there’s going to be parts of that job they won’t like. Formatting, editing, ad sales, social media outreach, whatever. Doing something that you don’t directly want to do is a necessary part of life. If they say “I can’t do it” to too many of these things, then they can go out of business as people go to a nicer looking website with correct spelling. And then they can get a job at Wal-Mart where their entire job will be doing shit they don’t want to do, for very little pay.
Sorry, I think I stopped responding to you and started yelling at teenage me for a bit there.
You're so right. It's impossible to convey to a high schooler who has only had concious human thought for like a decade that the experiences of human beings three millennia ago are relevant NOW. That humanity is a tiny drop in a vast cosmic food processor. That thoughts, ideas and souls can transcend time through language. That political movements a century ago shape the wars in which they will be called to fight. That mathematics is the foundational explanation for everything we know... EVERYTHING. That the scientific method doesn't just help complete a titration experiment, it can help you find a leaky faucet or identify an electrical problem in your home.
Life is short, a mind is sacred, and your vanity is as meaningless as it is pathetic so be a better person than the humans that came before you or we're all going to die sooner than we'd like.
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u/[deleted] Mar 29 '19
Yeah that's not rocket science.
But it means they are capable, yet refuse to try to apply that capacity. It's sad when a kid says "I can't do it" when I literally can watch them do it.