Did You Have a Fun Class in High School?

Saint_ · Post by **Saint_** » Fri May 06, 2011 8:20 am

I've got some pretty radical theories of education. One of them is that once in a while, just every so often, school should be fun. If you haven't been to a modern high school lately, you'd be surprised at the sheer pressure and intensity of test-driven education these days.

And that's sad in a way. We are making kids grow up way too fast. I've sometimes said that the biggest problem with adults is that we are all too serious all the time now. With the pressure of 21st century life, we all seem to be blazing along the track Hell-bent for the end with blinders on.

I mean, when was the last time you rolled in the grass with your favorite person and tickled each other? And yet, that's precisely what would be good for us all according to the doctors. We are all stress casualties.

I fondly remember a Horticulture class that I had in the 1970s. Not only did we get to sit together at tables instead of in back-of-head-to-face rows and desks, we got to get our hands dirty, occasionally walked around the neighborhoods near our high school looking at people's yards, and YEAH! the teacher, Woody Woodrum, even played the radio softly while we worked!

MAN! That one class made the whole day bearable.:yh_party

I try to be like that whenever I can. Today we are learning about Nets. A Net is a two-dimensional geometric representation of a three-dimesional polyhedron. You know...like a pizza box before it is folded up!

The kids write the definition of a Geometry vocabulary word on the net, then they color the net, cut it out, and glue or tape it together to build a 3D model.

When I first did this, I thought, "These are high school kids, there's no way they are going to go for cutting and pasting." But was I ever wrong. I get out the scissors, glue and colored pencils and they light up like Christmas trees and babble with excitement!

And yes... I turn on a clean radio station for them while we have some old-fashioned fun.:yh_bigsmi

So, did you have a class in high school that was just fun to go to? One that helped you make it through the day?

Oh: Here's a link to those nets: Nets (3D Models) : Free Printables : SEN Teacher ~ Free teaching resources for Special Needs.

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Fri May 06, 2011 10:02 am

Some of the best times I had growing up were in school loved it and it was so much fun. Now the kids fear, dread, and have tremendous stress in school can't be healthy or good.

Like your ideas Saint..

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:41 am

My funnest class was probably the various shop classes. Strangely I never liked wood shop/carpentry as much has metal and mechanical. Drafting was great for me also. We did it all the old fashion way, no CAD there.

Not much good to say about our schools nowadays IMO so I'll keep my mouth shut and not derail the thread.

Wandrin · Post by **Wandrin** » Fri May 06, 2011 11:44 am

I had some great classes in high school. I was an experiment run by some professors from nearby universities. The thought behind the classes was that the world isn't broken down into the subject classifications used by traditional schools. In a course on the Napoleonic Wars, we studied the physics and geometry of cannon fire, the psychology and politics used to justify wars, the music used to motivate troops and populations, and the history leading up to the wars. We used formal logic to dissect the speeches and diagrammed them using Boolean Algebra. I loved it!

In a music class, we studied the math of music, the psychological aspects, the physics of musical instruments, as well as chord progressions, the "feel" of different key signatures, and the different styles and techniques used by composers.

The goal was understanding rather than doing well on standardized tests. It was great fun.

Omni_Skittles · Post by **Omni_Skittles** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:35 pm

I had a French teacher named Madam Holman, she taught at FHS. She was amazing... she embraced my craziness. While everyone was hanging out with each other, i found myself in the hallways and library's walking with books through the hallways and reading them through my classes... and they were odd books, like helter skelter and the encyclopedia of serial killers, she loved that about me. She even made an award at the end of the semester just for me, "being unique". i prided that more then being on the presidents list in college.

Lon · Post by **Lon** » Fri May 06, 2011 3:28 pm

I don't know if any of the classes that I took in high school could be called FUN, but they were enjoyable. My 1952 high school classes were------Spanish 4, Physiology, Chemistry 2, Algebra 2, Typing 2, English 4

Scrat · Post by **Scrat** » Sat May 07, 2011 7:44 am

If there was one class I dreaded it was English. I was forced to memorize poems by Robert Frost and read plays like Romeo and Juliet. I just didn't care and couldn't motivate myself, I put as little effort into it as I could and I remember the teacher finally gave up on me. I'll grant her one thing, she was an excellent teacher she tried so hard to get me to appreciate all of these things but to no avail. She finally met her match, I just didn't give a damn. The first time I came home on leave from the Navy though I bought her dinner and thanked her for trying so hard.