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legend

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Posts posted by legend

    Baldur's Gate III - Information Thread, update (09/05): Patch 7 (the final really big one) released for PC, Mac/console release in October

    in The Spawn Point

    Posted

    It's plausible it's not on gamepass because MS bungled the whole affair.

     

    Even setting aside the whole Series S issue that MS finally gave a pass on, we know from the leaked documents that MS had listed BG3 as a possible Gamepass title, but thought they could pay very little for it assuming it would be niche. If they ever presented that insult to Larian, Larian very well may have said "lol fuck no."

    Math and reading skills are in an unprecedented decline in teens globally

    in The Political Re-Education Camp

    Posted

    Actually, I'll post the first well written paragraphs here in an effort to inspire interest in where he goes with it.

    https://www.mimuw.edu.pl/~pawelst/rzut_oka/Zajecia_dla_MISH_2011-12/Lektury_files/LockhartsLament.pdf

     

    Quote

    A musician wakes from a terrible nightmare. In his dream he finds himself in a society where
    music education has been made mandatory. “We are helping our students become more
    competitive in an increasingly sound-filled world.” Educators, school systems, and the state are
    put in charge of this vital project. Studies are commissioned, committees are formed, and
    decisions are made— all without the advice or participation of a single working musician or
    composer.


    Since musicians are known to set down their ideas in the form of sheet music, these curious
    black dots and lines must constitute the “language of music.” It is imperative that students
    become fluent in this language if they are to attain any degree of musical competence; indeed, it
    would be ludicrous to expect a child to sing a song or play an instrument without having a
    thorough grounding in music notation and theory. Playing and listening to music, let alone
    composing an original piece, are considered very advanced topics and are generally put off until
    college, and more often graduate school.


    As for the primary and secondary schools, their mission is to train students to use this
    language— to jiggle symbols around according to a fixed set of rules: “Music class is where we
    take out our staff paper, our teacher puts some notes on the board, and we copy them or
    transpose them into a different key. We have to make sure to get the clefs and key signatures
    right, and our teacher is very picky about making sure we fill in our quarter-notes completely.
    One time we had a chromatic scale problem and I did it right, but the teacher gave me no credit
    because I had the stems pointing the wrong way.”


    In their wisdom, educators soon realize that even very young children can be given this kind
    of musical instruction. In fact it is considered quite shameful if one’s third-grader hasn’t
    completely memorized his circle of fifths. “I’ll have to get my son a music tutor. He simply
    won’t apply himself to his music homework. He says it’s boring. He just sits there staring out
    the window, humming tunes to himself and making up silly songs.”

     

     

     

    And I'll skip ahead and post the last part of the introduction, because it really makes the point:

    Quote

    Everyone knows that something is wrong. The politicians say, “we need higher standards.” The schools say, “we need more money and equipment.” Educators say one thing, and teachers 3 say another. They are all wrong. The only people who understand what is going on are the ones most often blamed and least often heard: the students. They say, “math class is stupid and boring,” and they are right.

     

    Math and reading skills are in an unprecedented decline in teens globally

    in The Political Re-Education Camp

    Posted

    Just now, LazyPiranha said:

     

    Teaching HOW to do math is weird.  It's like trying to translate your own brain into someone else's.  My son is in fourth grade and trying to teach him the shortcuts and logic my brain uses to do math quickly in my head just doesn't work most of the time.  

     

    I think we shouldn't even bother with that. We should focus on exposing abstract questions to explore and how to seek answers to questions, not teach solutions and shortcuts. Shortcuts etc follow from understanding and interest.

     

    Basically, this: A Mathematician’s Lament

     

    • Halal 1

    TIME's person of the year is...

    in The Political Re-Education Camp

    Posted

    3 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

    I would respect her more if she wasn't a billionaire. Just donate $900 million to charity/causes and you'll still be fine.

     

    I've been trying to decide how effectual that actually is. I feel like many charities have sometimes significant problems and it's almost hopeless for them to make lasting change. I want to say we need societal level organization that kind of has to be done by government with a strong focus on social programs.

     

    Naturally, our current governments suck and it's unclear if we can ever make them good. However, I guess my take is I don't really fault billionaires for existing. I blame society for not being properly organized. It's similar (though not the same magnitude) as blaming people for not being more conscientious about their water usage when there is very little that will accomplish and there are much larger social solutions needed, even if everyone was "better" about it.

     

    I will, however, blame billionaires who *fight* efforts to have better social programs because they want to horde their wealth. Those people can get fucked.

    • True 1
    • Halal 1
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