Douglas Johnson wrote:
"J. Clarke" wrote:

Douglas Johnson wrote:
"J. Clarke" wrote:

The schools are a miserable experience that produce mediocre
results. The argument that they are better than nothing doesn't
wash. What did you personally learn in the public schools school
other than to read and write and do sums that was of any real
value
in later life?

Driver's Ed.

Really worthless. Learned more from my Dad in an hour than in a
whole semester of that crap.

If my Dad had tried to teach me to drive, one of us would have been
in the hospital, the other in jail. Not that I didn't learn a lot
from him, just more by example than instruction. Besides, in my
state you could get your license two years earlier with Driver's Ed.
It was also good for an insurance discount into my 20's.

I don't recall any insurance discount, yes, it let me drive two years
earlier, but that's politics and not skills. Was a waste of time.

History and Government.

What did you learn about history and government that was (a) useful
and (b) true? I'm _still_ unlearning that crap.

A history teacher gave me a love of history. Maybe half my
recreational reading is history. As for government, understanding
of
the structure and powers of the Federal government is useful almost
every day.

Lucky you. The main thing I learned from history teachers was that
history sucks.

As to understanding the structure and powers of the Federal
government, yes, that's useful, but I didn't learn anything about it
in school. I learned a bunch of feel-good bull**** though.

Chemistry and Physics.

When have you actually used it?

It lets you call "bull****" on someone or something that claims to
violate basic principles.

Calling bull**** based on high school physics and chemistry is a good
way to make a fool of yourself.

Geometry, Trig, and Intro to Calculus.

Lucky you with the intro to calculus. I've never found
mathematical
proofs to be particularly useful.

I have a patent which has a formal proof as a key component.

A patent for _what_ and is it making money for you?

Sounds to me like you went to an unusual school. The most important
thing I got out of high school was _me_.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)