Comments on: Public Middle School Girl Culture

By: Candide III

Candide III — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 05:37:46 +0000

I didn’t mean that sort of specific. What I meant was that the sort of children and parents that you get in Palo Alto (and similar enclaves) is highly unrepresentative of the American population, or any national population for that matter, and that it is wrong to generalize from it. The same consideration ought to be applied to, say, Sudbury-type schools. At least that John Taylor Gatto guy taught an inner-city public school full of NAMs. Education Realist also teaches in a regular school with regular students. I didn’t find anything about Montessori in his blog. I wonder what his opinion is.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:51:34 +0000

I’m sorry, are you being sarcastic, Bob? Deeply disturbing?

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 20:50:15 +0000

The story didn’t strike me as at all specific to Palo Alto. It wasn’t about, say, the amazing software projects middle-school kids could do, if teachers would just get out of the way and let them explore on their own. (Also, Strong’s teaching experience goes beyond one Montessori school in Palo Alto.)

By: Alrenous

Alrenous — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:43:37 +0000

it can’t really exist, and then that if it does exist it is unnatural

…

They lobbied their moms hard to let them return to “a normal school” so that they could get away from these weirdo kids who liked learning and being nice.

The child becomes the adult when their cultural habits ossify.

–

I think Prussian schools moved away from corporal punishment because it’s too hard to disguise the sadism. When someone physically strikes you, they almost automatically go into the ‘enemy’ camp.

The existence of the Prussian school relies totally on the delusion of the victims. If the average voter could recognize its sadism, it would not work very well. If the average voter could recognize that the sadism is intentional, it could not exist.

By: Harold

Harold — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:39:53 +0000

If you knew me you’d know that the idea is absurd that I of all people was oblivious to anything involving social dynamics.

It’s not an unfolding of genetics; it’s one of the many ways America is weird.

By: Bob Sykes

Bob Sykes — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:42:55 +0000

The New Zealand school kids almost certainly had a popularity culture, Harold just couldn’t see it. The popularity culture is an unfolding of genetics and morphs into the normal adult culture.

Also, the description of the Montessori children is deeply disturbing. There is something wrong with them.

By: Harold

Harold — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 09:46:30 +0000

American teen culture is particular to America. When I was at school in New Zealand there was no such thing as ‘popularity’. Kids had their groups of frirnds and their was no intergroup hierarchy whatsoever. Things may be different now as the TV is saturated with American teen dramas all of which revolve around who is more popular than whom.

By: Candide III

Candide III — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 09:20:05 +0000

The guy worked in a Montessori school in goddamn Palo Alto! How can anyone generalize anything from this is a mystery.

By: Aretae

Aretae — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:21:29 +0000

Yup. The reason experienced homeschoolers homeschool is because of social reasons. The theory being anything is better than the evils of normal middle school