Ahh the French

[Fake Boris]

Here's what I would put my money on: More Americans are unable to situate America on a map, than Frenchmen are.

[Elok]

Especially the family trees that go in circles. That's considered "contemplation of the infinite."

Xpost

[Fake Boris]

That would be ridiculous. People who memorize the family trees of Roman emperors are clearly more cultured.

Still haven't gotten over that one?

[C0ckney]

[giblets]

Still haven't gotten over that one?

It was a very good joke

[Fake Boris]

If you really need some sort of evidence, consider the following: every American commentary of French philosophy I read was dumbing down the original.

BTW, bad commentary of French philosophers by Americans is the primary source of prejudice against "postmodernism" in the US, i.e. you're building your own basket of ignorance.

[Fake Boris]

It was a very good joke

It is a testament indeed to the value of your culture, that you don't understand why a functional education system wouldn't want to develop the memorization skills of pupils.

[Elok]

They debased French twaddle into a different kind of mistranslated twaddle? Pardon my Yankee ignorance, but is the correct phrase here quelle horreur or something like that?

Also, my prejudice against postmodernism, if you can call it prejudice, is a reaction against its purely American incarnation. Possibly the French version is less odious. Don't much care.

[giblets]

It is a testament indeed to the value of your culture, that you don't understand why a functional education system wouldn't want to develop the memorization skills of pupils.

Right, by making them memorize something completely useless instead of something that is mostly useless

[Elok]

It is a testament indeed to the value of your culture, that you don't understand why a functional education system wouldn't want to develop the memorization skills of pupils.

Yep, just like the Chinese are doing, with their outstanding educational system that allows students to memorize massive amounts of information without ever stopping to understand its significance

[Fake Boris]

Who said anything about not thinking about its significance?

[Elok]

Time spent memorizing things is time that could have been spent learning actual understanding. A good memory is not a bad thing, but a list of Roman Emperors and their families is of far less worth than a thorough exploration of their policies, their relationships, and the way they lived. I knew a guy once who seemed to have actually memorized pi to the twenty-fifth place or something. Man, was that frickin' useless...

[Elok]

Please try to understand that "writing stuff down" and "keeping records" are both important parts of American culture.

[Fake Boris]

Time spent memorizing things is time that could have been spent learning actual understanding. A good memory is not a bad thing, but a list of Roman Emperors and their families is of far less worth than a thorough exploration of their policies, their relationships, and the way they lived. I knew a guy once who seemed to have actually memorized pi to the twenty-fifth place or something. Man, was that frickin' useless...

If you want to learn relations between stuff, you need to learn stuff.

[Elok]

So, if I want to understand evolution, should I start by memorizing every species in Linnaeus?