Official INTP confession thread

[InquilineKea]

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Inq, I skipped assigned readings and school altogether (save for the occasions I actually cracked the books open before a test I’d decied it was best not to slack off on). I went to school in Scandinavia, so no options to self-study out of things at all were offered - you accept the roadblocks they put on your thought, or you drop out.

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<p>Wow. I read about how difficult it was to homeschool oneself (or self-study for placement exams) in other countries through “The Teenage Liberation Handbook”. It was somewhat depressing - and it also forced me to rethink (I was narrow-minded back then - so after the 2004 Bush victory I developed some sort of hatred for America and thought that other countries would have ran better). I finally got out of that mentality. It would have been easier for me to get out of that mentality had I simply posted my thoughts online and to get pwned for it.</p>

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I used to hang out at the library and read material school tends to convince students to stay away from until they get “ready” (by reading bullet-pointed intro matieral that waters down the basics completely? Give me a break). I hung out on political debate forums and discussed ideas through with older friends. Do you feel this same way? Like the idea that school is the only, or even best, venue to get knowledge is just the most absurd thing ever?

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<p>Yes - I feel exactly the same way - it sums up my thoughts as well. While school in America does not prohibit you from "material school tends to convince students to stay away from until they get “ready” " - it certainly convinces students that they need to “get ready” before investigating any sort of material in depth.</p>

<p>The other problem is the entrenched nature of the school structure. You’re with the same group of peers for several years straight. If none of them are intellectually open (this was the case for everyone at my school) - then there is no social reinforcement for you to pursue ANY material of interest. The sad thing is that I never read ANY behavioral science books other than Herrnstein and Murray’s “Bell Curve” and the “Nurture Assumption” of Harris until I was 17 (and that was only after my original plan turned out unsuccessful because I couldn’t control my curiosity!) I literally would have to control my curiosity in order to do well in my classes. While one has to control one’s own curiosity in order to get tasks done - the fact was that I still had a lot to learn and that since I didn’t have many opportunities after college to pursue the resources that I would be interested in - I decided just to bite into my natural curiosity and read, read, read, taking full advantage of my university library’s system.
(the situation was actually more complex than this - I actually had no foresight that I would have learned so much through this. It initially merely started with my obsession with journal articles that started out from a sociology class that was very well taught - unfortunately - most classes are not taught like that). A WELL TAUGHT class ENCOURAGES students to seek out materials on their own initiative - it does not present materials in a textbook format. And it shouldn’t be in the form of a class either - it should be in the form of a website that anyone with potential interest could be able to access. </p>

<p>On a side note - it’s also the notion that “if you have straight A’s and good test scores - you should go out and have some fun.” If you’re that way, you should become complacent. So as the mentality says. The problem with that is that you’re still narrow-minded after all that. Very few people actually READ good non-fiction books on social theory or evolutionary biology or the problems of the educational system or etc.etc.etc in their spare time - and the problem is that they never get the idea to read those in the first place. It’s kind of sad that the best-selling books by scientists have names like “The God Delusion” instead of names like “The Extended Phenotype”. </p>

<p>By the way, the class that was very well taught: <a href=“http://courses.washington.edu/academy3[/url]”>http://courses.washington.edu/academy3&lt;/a&gt; . You can see the research journal articles and books there. It had an online forum. None of the students were as motivated as I was (early entrance students by the way) - since most of them were already bent on their professional tracks. Once they’d finish with their schoolwork - they’d go out and have fun. They wouldn’t go on pursuing more reading.</p>

<p>Maybe there needs to be an essay contest on this. There is a facebook group called “Free World Class Education” - with students who are dissatisifed with the informational asymmetries that school systems (and universities) generally promote.</p>

<p>I know people who have been been discouraged from a particular subject/field of study just because of a SINGLE poor class. In fact - people in college are encouraged to be “open” - but yet - they don’t have much of an opportunity to really pursue what they want to do. If they do poorly in a single class - they’re told to stop pursuing that particular class. People who tend to rely on external motivation tend to be discouraged from subjects that they have potential interest in rather easily. In contrast - I developed an internal motivation in the subjects I want to pursue, and even though I fully know that most of my classes will not be particularly engaging, I’m not going to let those facts discourage me from my pursuit of the material. Self-studiers are a lot less likely to get discouraged by such instances than people who are socialized to rely on classes for most of their material.</p>

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<p>Am going to post more…</p>