Youtube vs High school

Discussion in 'Education' started by ALFORCE, Sep 14, 2017.

Tags:
?

Youtube vs High School

  1. Youtube

    3 vote(s)
    75.0%
  2. High school

    1 vote(s)
    25.0%
  1. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I don't know many people who didn't invest in high school or college that has a much better career than I do. Now, I do know people without college that have a better career than I do, but most of them inherited a business from their folks.
     
  2. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
  3. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Trade skills are things like being an electrician, etc. Just based on your basic attitudes, I figured you might have had an associates degree, but not much else. You surprised me.

    Being a hacker is a pretty specialized skill set. I'm not sure its applicable to the general person as a recommendation of how to live and educate yourself.

    Programmers without degrees is part of why there is so much crap out there on the market.

    Regardless, youtube isn't a replacement for high school. It's a good enhancement for it, and using it to supplement lectures, etc., does make for better teaching. I don't really see this as an either/or question. In real life, we need structure (aka high school) and it's a good idea to supplement it with more interesting information (aka youtube).
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2017
  4. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Lol, what weird high school did you go to that taught you how to read?
    You learn how to read in primary school and thats it!

    What you fail to understand, and that is a point that I tried to make at the beginning. It is that no one is trying to be you.
    People might get good money for putting little work, may be they wont get paid better than you, but they might put less work than you. Alternatively, they do what they want or can do.. they may not even have the resources for a degree. So why to even bother, attend high school?!! You can skip it and specialize early on. High school is mostly to prepare yourself for uni. Remember also, people with degrees, may not even get paid well. Consider all those people with non-scientific degrees.

    If I could take time back, I would quit high school, and do something that would bring me decent income while thinking of what business to develop.
    Majority of business people in the UK who did well, dont have any previous business education. You mostly do well in life if you start your own business and work like everyone. Alternatively, you work ;(
     
  5. Jimmy79

    Jimmy79 Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2014
    Messages:
    9,366
    Likes Received:
    5,074
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Absolutely.
     
    ALFORCE likes this.
  6. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
    I think I could do all the A-level subjects with youtube and the internet.

    If there are coursework, of course, I will need guidance.
     
  7. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
  8. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    You learn about reading comprehension, etc. No wonder you're not a big fan of high school, you didn't seem to go to a good one that taught you to read beyond the basics. The purpose of learning about English literature is not the content you read. It's the methods of going beyond the literal text, and analyzing it. All part of the reading process.

    The point you seem to be making is that to be is that to be you, you don't need high school education.

    The problem with your idea is that most of us don't know what they will be doing as a career in 20 years. I'm no longer in science, but am in the instructional technology world. The job I'm doing now didn't exist when I was in high school. Had I dropped out to learn a career, I'd probably be unemployed. Thankfully, I had a good basic high school and then liberal arts/sciences education. The goal of high school and most college degrees (with the exception of some medical and most engineering degrees) is to prepare you for a changing world, not for the world that exists at graduation. Also, in the U.S., at least, without a college education there are few jobs that make decent income.
     
  9. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Would you have wanted to learn that information without a class and/or credit to be earned?
     
  10. Jimmy79

    Jimmy79 Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2014
    Messages:
    9,366
    Likes Received:
    5,074
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The fact that I had so much trouble with it says I needed the class. There were some excellent videos though that explained everything in an way to understand fashion. The only issue with doing a class like that only on YouTube is that there's no instant feedback. When you do your own questions and getting wrong answers there's no one to walk through with step by step to find and explain your mistakes.
     
  11. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I agree. My real point is not that you can't learn using youtube, of course you can, if you're careful about your sources and have a lot of self discipline. My point is that most people need structure to learn (yes there are exceptions), and almost nobody would learn using youtube. While it's far from the best solution, most of us did learn in high school. I'm just glad that students today can supplement with youtube (and things like Khan Academy).
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2017
  12. Jimmy79

    Jimmy79 Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2014
    Messages:
    9,366
    Likes Received:
    5,074
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Khan Academy was one of the sources so used. Another was a ivy league professor. Can't remember which school.
     
  13. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    One of the sad things I read about last year was that MIT (Which had a great proportion of their lectures recorded on video and hosted online) was forced to close their system to the outside world. Why? They didn't have closed-captioning on their free lectures.
     
  14. Jimmy79

    Jimmy79 Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2014
    Messages:
    9,366
    Likes Received:
    5,074
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I don't know of any in depth series of lectures, but a little time on YouTube can teach you just about anything you want to know. Just have to be careful choosing your sources.
     
  15. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Some of the first points are move more ludicrous from the ones in the last posts, to a degree that they are hilarious.

    First of all, the purpose of the thread wasn't to show that high school is redundant. I learnt psychology and economics as A-Level in a British school. A-Level is a much superior system relative to the garbage system you have in US. They have been proven to me useful, and will always be.

    My argument was that with youtube you could achieve a better result in terms of knowledge with the same amount of time given to you that is given to a student in high school (3 years).
    I still believe so, the reason is very simple. The government faces different people with different disciplines and motivations, and it is tricky to provide for their needs/wants (although the A-level system, does a pretty decent job at it). Even though I wrote many psychology essays, drilled a lot economics exam papers and learnt calculus, I can still take those 3 years and instead watch enough videos to make myself more knowledgeable. I could also use notes to memorize some of the key facts. There was a period of time when I watched educational videos on youtube, they did teach me a lot.. even if it meant a crime-related documentary or a documentary about some country.

    I will give you a crappy educational system where I studied for a long time. It was an Israeli high school. They had many compulsory subjects such as history, literature, Torah, sports, geography, lame computer classes, civil studies. A lot of subjects, constant assessment, some coursework and angry educators.
    I could save all that waste of time and energy, and simply watched youtube. Perhaps get some certificates (such as MCITP, CCNA or programming certification.OCPJP) and get myself a job at the age of 16.

    I did need to graduate the British school to have good enough English and grades to be accepted to the top university I got myself into.

    I dont care to further talk about the topic, but take the time to speculate yourself!

    About career, again it is not the topic of this thread, but developing a successful career is more about whether you know how to move right, instead of chasing blindly for certificates and diplomas.

    A very passionate and committed person would get a phD in physics and may be also a nobel prize. But statistically, it is improbable that some high school student that did maths at high school reaches even half of the achievement of such a person.
     
  16. Deckel

    Deckel Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2014
    Messages:
    17,608
    Likes Received:
    2,043
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I am guessing one would get laid more often and much sooner than the other so I guess it depends on knowledgeable in what.
     
  17. petef56

    petef56 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2008
    Messages:
    1,121
    Likes Received:
    172
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Ok let's add BOOKS to the list of sources. I'm self taught in many areas and my technique is to obtain 3 books (by 3 different authors) on the topic of interest. I've always found that 3 different authors viewpoints compliment each other in a manner that allows for best learning.

    I would rate BOOKS at a greater value than HIGH SCHOOL.

    --pete--
     
  18. petef56

    petef56 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2008
    Messages:
    1,121
    Likes Received:
    172
    Trophy Points:
    63
    I first thought you made a grammatical error by using "learnt", but I learnt something new at the link below. :)

    http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/learned_learnt.htm
     
  19. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
  20. HonestJoe

    HonestJoe Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Oct 28, 2010
    Messages:
    14,837
    Likes Received:
    4,814
    Trophy Points:
    113
    The problem is your assertion that learning via YouTube is unquestionably and unconditionally better implies that high school is redundant. If you’re saying method B is so much better than method A, why would anyone uses method A?

    But as you go on to say, different students can have very different needs and wants. A driven learner with a solid educational grounding could certainly build up a knowledge base from YouTube videos but then the same individual would also do so from school or indeed any other source. Alternatively, a poorly motivated student who didn’t pick up the basic skills in their early schooling will struggle at high-school but they’d struggle even more if they were just presented with YouTube and expected to self-teach.

    Of course, in reality there are no barriers and driven learners can and will use multiple sources. The whole idea of putting up high-school and YouTube as competing alternatives is flawed because it isn’t an ether-or choice. And yes, there can be poor schools but there are also plenty of poor “educational” videos too. There’s nothing fundamental about the method you’re proposing that automatically makes it better that traditional schooling.

    The other thing is that you’re still talking about knowledge when that is far from the only aspect of education. Learning how to learn and practical application of knowledge is (or should be) major aspects and those are elements that are much harder to take away from purely non-interactive sources.
     
  21. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
    The context of the thread was knowledge accumulation.

    However, even with youtube, you will be able to do only the important subjects (such as maths) and apply to some universities.

    Some universities like the Open University doesnt ask for a high school diploma.

    Work places rarely ask to see your high school diploma.
     
  22. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    27,293
    Likes Received:
    4,346
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Every job I've had as an adult has required I prove my educational level by transcripts. Real universities in the U.S. require high school transcripts. At least in the U.S., many workplaces look down on purely online for-profit universities.

    Back to the OP, though, I just don't see many people having the self discipline to learn online at even the level of the horrid high school education you claim to have gotten. It might work for a few, but for the masses, it won't. Most people need some sort of structure for learning.
     
    Last edited: Sep 20, 2017
    ALFORCE likes this.
  23. ALFORCE

    ALFORCE Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2014
    Messages:
    168
    Likes Received:
    25
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Well, me and you arent those people.
    Everyone can take their own path in life. My path is true.
     

Share This Page