Sunday, September 13. 2009STARTING CLASS
After last week’s excitement I’m now back at Beige U. My classes have started, and I’m also busy in Prof. Antlerhead’s genetics research lab.
Fenton’s classes have started, too. His major is in computer science, and he was able to get credits for both the work he does at Hare-Link and also for his brief tenure at Microtalon. Between those, he’s on track to graduate in May. I’m still not at that point. I took a lot of Advanced Placement classes at Caliban, but those were almost all in Foraging before I switched from Herbivore to Insectivore. As a result, none of those counted toward my degree program. I don’t mind, though. It’s better being true to my natural diet. Fenton and I haven’t talked about what we’ll do after he gets his degree. He may stay down here; after all, as he’s repeatedly said the only reason he enrolled at all was to be near me. All together: Awwwwww.... Meanwhile, back home little Coney is growing up. She’s four now, and has become quite popular at her predator preschool. Today's question: Since I assume human preschools don't teach hunting prey, what do they teach? Trackbacks
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AWWWWW. Had to say it louder, because the cuteness of romance is compounded by the cuteness of animal traits -- in the opinion of most humans. I hope you don't mind.
Human preschools work to advance children's skills in language, socializing, and basic arithmetic. Those are the subjects that come readily to my mind. I thought so. Those are covered here as well with the emphasis on socializing. (i.e., not confusing friends with prey)
Yes, Reading, (W)riting, (A)rithmetic (the three "R's" as we call it are the basics here, but during the earliest days, it's really "how to get along with others", and to do what the teacher tells you to do (respecting authority) -- those skills that will hopefully allow you to get thru your schooling.
I'm beginning to feel like my country is backwards since we don't have the three R's over here in preschool. Over here it's mainly socializing, making friends, learning to work in groups, spending time away from parents. Mainly the ways children aged 4 and 5 do at preschool is play, listen to stories, tell each other stories, paint, and do other artistic things. Reading, writing, and arethmetic are for the real school, though some children might learn a few words earlier.
Most preschools are also only a half day long. They don't get a full day until first grade. Anyways, they teach some of the most basic stuff, as well as helping them develop social skills.
Our youngest is starting French Immersion preschool (we're Canadian and French immersion is all over the country, even in areas like ours without a high French population).
Do they have "immersion" schools that teach other languages on your side, Lindy? Here, it's actually unusual to learn another species' language, although I'm doing my best to become fluent in Bat. Kell and Ms. Eyeshine are quite unique.
Wow, I imagine that will be tricky for you! Don't they make some noises out of your hearing range? To say nothing of the different body language due to having wings and being able to fly and all...
Hmmm. To the humans on the other side of the portal: as you probably gathered, one of the reasons we don't have more species learning the special languages of other species is that our senses and bodies are so different, and some communication modes are all but unique to a species because of that. I seem to remember someone saying that you all come from monkeys or apes or something like that; does that mean that there's just one language? Or if there are different ones, do you find it really easy to learn each other's languages? We all have the same body shape and are able to make the same sounds/gestures etc, but we still have tons of different languages. In fact, some languages have dialects that are specific enough to barely be understood from one dialect to another. In addition, each language(or almost each one) has its own unique way of writing it down, although in those areas conquered by the Roman Empire, the Roman alphabet tends to be used. English, for example (the language of the blog and comments on this side of the portal) uses a variation of the Roman alphabet. Actually, the wide variation in language is somewhat of a curiosity of mine. I wouldn't call myself a linguist, but I do enjoy linguistics.
Dialect difaculties huh? Sort of like how dingo's and cyote both speak canine, but they both have such extream accents they probably can't understand each other.
#5.1.2.1.1
Bioman
on
2009-09-15 08:28
(Reply)
I just realized I forgot to answer the 2nd part of your question. Most find it difficult to learn another language because our language and culture shapes the way we think so much that people have trouble adjusting. By the way, languages are roughly geographical. For example, in Central and South America, Spanish is the dominant language, except one country, Brazil, which speaks Portuguese, and in North America the dominant language is English, with French second in some northern parts.
Plenty of different languages here: when Humans first spread out from Africa, they wound up in different separated groups around the planet. Over many thousands of years, naturally they developed their own ways of communicating.
As for learning other languages, I suspect it might be similar on your side as on ours: the earlier one starts, the easier it is. If you learn it in childhood, while your brain is still very impressionable, you can get quite fluent; if you start as an adult, it's going to take a lot more work - unless you have a talent for it. In addition to purely Human conversation, we have also tried interspecies communication as well. Usually, this consisted of Humans talking to domesticated species and trying to make them understand our language (i.e. obey commands). Only recently have we been able to start an actual dialogue with another species - namely apes. Funny you should mention interspecies communications. Because, I had the most bizarre encounter, the other day. It was with a small bunch of rather tasty looking leaves. I...I kid you not. My schooling is that plants just sit there and take it. NOT talk back. In fact, they gave me a five hour lecture on how I would be damaging the whole planet if I were to even approach them. It finally went down to a plea bargain sellout of them recommending a rival patch to digest. Said that they'd do it, themselves. Alas, they couldn't really mobilize an attack.
What a world we are becoming. Had such a guilty consciousness afterwards that I just went home, dug into the cash pile and migrated to the mall. Now, I'm taking a break from drowning that sorrow in this new notion they call Guitar Hero. Can't believe how hard the hoofer controller was to find. Must have tracked down a dozen tips to over twenty retails to finally locate one at a toy spot. Oh, and the frozen pizza was delish! ...now we have talking plants...yiesh!
#5.1.2.3.1
jup-reindeer
on
2009-09-16 01:32
(Reply)
Well, last week my 4 year old learned about helping hands, how to sit and listen to a story. He was also paying attention when the teacher told him that they were to bring a piece of paper home with the snack schedule on it. I think he thought it meant he was to pack his own because we found a sleeve of crackers in his back pack before he went to bed. So I guess food is important on this side of the portal.
I heard your local school are going to year round. Wonder how long it will last. The school were I live did that about six or so years back and after a few years almost all of them switched back.
Of course I'm on the human side of the portal so I'm sure the differnces between the two systems are different than over here where the main problem I saw was the kids didn't get there normal summer vacation (nor did the staff which was actually a good thing in some ways but it also contributed to burn out I'm sure). And each school had four different sets of students cycling on different 'tracks' as they called them so no two groups (I think) were off that the same time. It's been about a year since I worked with the schools so my brain may be a little fuzzy on some things and I was just a sub (yard duty). Of course I never liked year round since I grew up with traditional and it seemed like the higher up were messing with kids childhoods by removing summer vactation and stuff. Sorry for the rant. Well, some have sugested summer and non-winter schooling to copensate for hibernators, so winter would be the major vacation time, with summer being standard school.
A friend of mine just told me about curricula for teaching preschool kids robotics, using the Logo language (that's the turtle one!) and I'm going to go investigate it for the little kids who are my friends. And some schools also teach little kids to talk without using any sounds at all -- we call it Sign Language -- or lots of different kinds of music.
Humans use sign language as well, but usually only to communicate with the deaf (those who cannot hear); otherwise, our languages are verbal, although many (including me) use hand movements to emphasize points in the conversation. Human speech can be complicating; to emphasize a sentence differently is to change the meaning EG
I'm surprised to see you here today. (I am surprised to see (you specificaly) here today) I'm surprised to see you here today. (I am surprised to see you (here specificaly) today) I'm surprised to see you here *today*. (I am surprised to see you here (today specificaly)) It's pretty much impossible for humans to communicate through pheromones, as our sence of smell it pretty much useless for detecting anything but the chemical present in skunk spray and carcasses. It seems our noses are geared to detect that over anything else, as we can detect it even at the smallest parts per billion. Course, we probably have that ability so we can avoid the rotting meat, as it is one of the foulest odors a human can smell. On pheromones, humans probably react to them on a subconcious level, but not much more. Whatever they teach, they should teach them not to watch bad movies and make references years too late.
Social interaction, mostly.
Hm, call it; Teaching "Society." Humans, as removed as we have developed ourselves to be outside the 'natural way of things', have little reason (even reasons against) to socialize before a certian age with those outside family and direct, local contact. As a migratory species--- again, I must point out, not in the natural sense, of seasonal patterns and regular paths/destinations, but as curious creatures who want to go see what's "over there," wherever 'there' may be--- our society's baseline is interactions with the world at large, as it were; getting along with others. Preschool, bascially, is to put a child outside familair territorry and show; here's someone new in someplace, let's see how you do. If you do wrong, you're here because we want to help you get it right. The alternatives, such as religious denominations that focus on isolation, tend to demonise the "outside" world and marking themselves as "the ONLY ones who are right"--- well, you're a scientist. You know well what happens to the creatures that don't evolve..... but then add a desire to live above all else. Unfortunatley, I mean "above ALL else." Consider: any life form will defend itself with violence, for the sake of life. What makes them dangerous is they will attack everything else, for the sake of their *idea*. What's worst is the odds say that absolutley, almost all of these ideas are wrong, and on good certiantly that they all are wrong. Tangent, going back to origional point; Your world's preschool--- well, in worlds without sentient animals, "pack" only means local family, maybe some symbiotic relationships between species. But animals with sentience, "pack" may have a less defined meaning, which coudl extend, again, to the world at large, or at least friends outside their own species and family/mates. To a degree; our "pack" means "Society." And the basic scholastic skillsets mentioned in the above posts. |
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