Forcing students to take notes is counterproductive: I was most successful in those classes in which I wasn’t forced to take notes. It only ever distracted me from listening to the teacher.
Also, for foreign language classes actually being forced to speak the language in class is so valuable. I had one teacher who focused on big cultural projects with very little language instruction and her students (including me) all did pretty poorly.
Forcing students to take notes is counterproductive: I was most successful in those classes in which I wasn’t forced to takes notes. Taking notes only distracted me from listening to the teacher.
I noticed more and more younger people thinking along that line. As an old fart myself, I will say I find this as worrisome as realizing the same younger generations are reading less and less books, even going to college.
I will also say it’s because most of those younger people were never taught the proper technique of reading and note-taking (grossly summarized, note-taking is not about trying to write what’s being said by the teacher/speaker, it’s about synthesizing the ideas/infos in one’s own words, so in reality there is very little writing to be done when listening to lesson or a lecture (good lectures are built around a lot of repetitions of the same information, over and over again, so the speaker can be pretty sure most students did get it).
Not being able to take-notes (and to read books) is a huge loss, for those kids. They should demand their teachers or their parents, or anyone that has learned it already, to teach them the technique but why would they even bother asking since they get no opportunity to realize how much they’re missing out by not learning it? I’m sad for them, because they’re the one being screwed up (compared to kids their age that do read and know how to take notes).
Also, for foreign language classes actually being forced to speak the language in class is so valuable. I had one teacher who focused on big cultural projects with very little language instruction and her students (including me) all did pretty poorly.
100% this. The only thing that should matter is to speak the language with as much excitement/fun/interest as possible. Even grammar, which is essential, comes second to that.
I was in high school during the early 2000s (which is mostly what I’m thinking of). I had unusable dial-up internet living in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not exactly like I’m so young and I just didn’t take notes because I can look up everything later.
People have different learning styles—I learn by listening. Taking notes (and being forced to simply copy everything on the board) distracts from that, so I’m later forced to review everything again instead of simply picking it up by listening in the moment.
and being forced to simply copy everything on the board
Like I said, it’s exactly what note taking is not supposed to be. Copying is moronic and one should blame the teachers (and their own teachers before them) for ruining a technique that has proven its efficiency.
But whatever. I’m old enough to not worry too much about myself and I also know things won’t get any better before they get a lot worse. So be it.
People that are heavily abstracted in their functional thought do not need notes to learn. The most essential factor is intuitively presented information. Like Richard Feynman said, ‘if you can’t explain it intuitively, you do not understand the subject in the first place.’
I could pass absolutely any test just by attending a class and listening. I absolutely despised the nominal repetitive framework of homework as oppressive authoritarian nonsense. I attended school to learn and any incompetent wretch that could not do their job in the allotted time they were given on the clock, was not my problem to fix on my time. Training me to be a slave that works at home on my own time is an unethical and immoral methodology that I refused to accept in life even as a kid. It is toxic corporate propaganda at the most fundamental level of society. I work on a clock and never for free, and I am exceptionally competent at understanding what I am told, when I am told, without memorization, or demeaning repetition that lowers my bar of nominal expectation and holds me back to the limits of others.
School was largely structured for memorization skills. Memorization is worthless in the real world. No one is reading their notes from school 45 years later. True understanding is always an abstraction and it is that abstract understanding that, when useful, has long term staying power in the mind. Notes aid in memorization, and if that is what is needed for a person to force the mind into an abstract understanding, so be it. Some of us exist only within or on the edge of abstraction and process information directly in this space.
Don’t misunderstand me here. You are not wrong. Most people are not like me in this regard. I tested as an outlier for intuitive inference skills as early as TCAP (Tennessee) in 3rd grade with an invitation to Duke from those results.
I’m simply pointing out that this notes skill is not universal. I would not say I’m the most avid reader, but I have my own hard science fiction universe called Parsec-7 that I like to play with, I’ve read most of Asimov’s fiction, the Dune series, and am sitting in front of a couple hundred books in my closet with everything from optics to astronomy, cycling, mechanical engineering, programming, Linux, to metallurgy, machining, and metal casting. My grammar is terrible, but I generally manage to convey my thoughts to others. My complexity management skills are somewhat weak, and that is the only tangible skill where note taking might have indirectly assisted, but probably not. The abstract concepts underpinning JSON and mind maps are what have helped me far more than notes could have done in any capacity. Anyways, abstraction is the goal. Memorization is a failure.
I could pass absolutely any test just by attending a class and listening. I absolutely despised the nominal repetitive framework of homework as oppressive authoritarian nonsense
I did too. I hope like most kids do (there are much funnier things to do). But I did those stupid homework and studied those boring to death lessons. And beside teaching me the value of constant regular work (instead of short bursts of it), at least when applied to boring stuff, that also taught me how to cope with things I have to do even when I don’t like them, even when I despise them like you said.
School was largely structured for memorization skills. Memorization is worthless in the real world. No one is reading their notes from school 45 years later.
True that. But up until very recently I was still reading the notes I had taken some 35 years ago while studying Plato or Marx, and a few other philosophers. Let’s just say it also depends the notes ;)
Anyways, abstraction is the goal. Memorization is a failure.
100% agree… also because note-taking was never about memorizing anything but, like i already said, about synthesizing which, in other words, means being able to understand, summarize and rephrase something one is hearing in one’s own words. That is understanding, aka being able to explain to oneself.
Training me to be a slave that works at home on my own time is an unethical and immoral methodology that I refused to accept in life even as a kid. It is toxic corporate propaganda at the most fundamental level of society.
Since you’re into reading, I would suggest you may be interested in reading Rousseau’s Social Contract, at the very least the first few chapters but the entire book should be relevant. Read the book itself, not one of the many (and too often stupid) summaries that are available. Rousseau’s considerations are very articulated, summarizing the book (even when done honestly, which is certainly not always the case) will make you miss a lot. I would also suggest his * Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes* (Discourse on Inequality).
I have never read it in English myself (I’m French) so I would not want to suggest a poor translation. (If you read French, the latest edition published by GF, under the direction of Bruno Bernardi, is both cheap as fuck and excellent with many detailed annotations that will help most readers that aren’t already experts ;)
You may also want to read another book, this time not by one of those nasty Swiss thinkers but by a French dude, like me :P It’s titled Discours de la servitude volontaire (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude), by La Boétie. Here again, I have never read it in English and I would not know which translation to suggest. But it’s a great read.
Note that those are old books (Rousseau’s Contract is from 1760s, and La Boétie published his in 1570-something) so you can easily imagine their style may not be what modern days readers are used to. But those are not large books and they are more than worth reading, even more so knowing how impactful they were on our societies (and knowing how often they’re poorly understood by people that can’t be bothered to actually read them).
Despite them being short, they also are also rather dense read and I would encourage any beginner to read them with one very good friend so you won’t feel alone and you should also not feel afraid to freely discuss your impressions and reactions (no fear of being judged between friends, hopefully) no matter how daring/stupid/nasty your thoughts (another thing younger generations are not used to deal with, alas: being judged is a constant nowadays, that certainly won’t help encourage a culture and mentality of real risk-taking) because those are books that are more than likely to provoke some heated discussions and with any luck some disturbing but motivating realizations.
I’m simply pointing out that this notes skill is not universal. I would not say I’m the most avid reader, but I have my own hard science fiction universe called Parsec-7 that I like to play with, I’ve read most of Asimov’s fiction, the Dune series, and am sitting in front of a couple hundred books in my closet with everything from optics to astronomy, cycling, mechanical engineering, programming,
Glad to know that (btw, Asimov was one of my first ‘fan’ read when I was a kid ;). No doubt there are still many (young) readers out there but what matters is the trend, which is not favorable to reading. You know, like when statisticians say that people are making less kids here in the West (or in China, or in Russia). It doesn’t mean no one is having kids anymore, and some families can even even have a lot of kids. It just means that on the whole, in those countries, enough people are not having any kid for the population to start (or to soon start) to decline.
More importantly, not learning proper note-taking (and reading) is not favorable to those kids themselves. It only harm them (it should not impact me, or my spouse).
As a potential employer, who are you more likely to hire between a kid that knows how to pass a school test and a kid that knows how to face whatever you thrown at them (like they’re more than likely to deal with in their job)? Reading and note-taking (aka synthesizing on the fly) are certainly not the sole ways to acquire those skills, but they’re a great way, cheap and easy (if boring).
Once again, all I’m saying is not that reading/writing is good per se (it’s not), nor that those kids are dumber than reading/writing kids. I’m just saying that it’s a huge loss for those kids because they’re a lot less well prepared and equipped to compete against those other kids whose teachers and families want them to acquire those skills in a world that is highly competitive and that will be even more competitive.
Memorization is a failure.
As a general rule, I tend to steer away from slogans and from black or white definitions (things like ‘either you’re with us or you’re against us’) type of definitions.
The real question should be: what’s the purpose of educating kids (why the fuck do we force them to waste their younger years sitting for hours in classrooms instead of, say, enjoy playing outside all day long). Only then we should feel allowed to discuss the best best (and worst) ways to achieve that.
As a general rule, I tend to steer away from slogans and from black or white definitions (things like ‘either you’re with us or you’re against us’) type of definitions.
The phrase you are looking for in English here is dichotomous logic.
I’ve not been a big reader. It was more of a challenge to read some a couple of series just to say that I have. The vast majority of my books are reference material. I am a Maker; a crafts person. Physical disability from a car crashing into me while riding a bicycle to work 11 years ago has pushed me somewhat into books.
As they say, books about fantasy are for those that regret the past. Books about nonfiction are for those that regret the present. And science fiction is for those that regret the future. Barely surviving a broken neck and back has consequences in the long term that make life much harder and shorter. I know my regrets and what I enjoy reading to escape.
Work is a funny thing. When it is gone from your life suddenly, at a young age, the loss of purpose that work brings is felt very acutely. That is the biggest challenge, or it was for me in the 3-5 year range after the crash.
I owned my own business with employees twice, both times I was painting cars. The hardest lesson to learn with automotive paint and refinishing is how to defeat yourself and your emotions. The perfect standard of automotive paint does not care how many times it takes spraying primer and sanding it down, or prying on some metal, or applying layers of filler. Perfection is a result. It is hard and thankless work because one’s greatest triumph is to go completely unnoticed.
I have done many other jobs too. I’m very adaptable. In my opinion, in business, the person that can infer how something works without needing a reference, or learn from watching someone else do a thing once - is a most valuable skill.
I have always been curious about the lowest level processes I can achieve. I don’t want to go buy a thing I can go make myself. I liked cars and when I was young I read that, of all the skills that car enthusiasts generally possessed, paint was the rare black art that few people dared to learn or try themselves. So the first thing I learned was how to paint. I built motors and worked in a machine shop porting heads for awhile – another rare art. Before the crash that got me, I was working on my car and many projects that were coming together. One of those was building a small home foundry setup to do my own metal castings.
After the crash, I got into programming microcontrollers and etching my own circuit boards. While everyone was sending board designs to China, I was still making my own at home. With programming I am curious about the lowest levels of compute. I like to build my own little circuits and sensors.
I’m into 3d printing and design. I design all my own stuff from scratch in CAD. I’ve learned the geometry and figured out the topological naming issue to make proper designs.
I also like reverse engineering circuits in KiCAD and making documentation graphics in Inkscape. I’ve learned Linux at a reasonably advanced level too. I’ve scratched the surface of astronomy and building my own eyepieces with lens stacks using surplus lenses and junk.
In all of these things, the common thread is finding purpose in doing whatever thing. It is a seeking of an internal sense of accomplishment. It’s all endorphins really. I don’t get a sense of satisfaction from politics in general. I often feel frustration and injustice. It is a dangerous feeling for a capable but disabled Maker; to feel such a frustration; to feel like one is not in control of one’s destiny. So I avoid it for now, because worrying about things I cannot change is a waste of energy.
The phrase you are looking for in English here is dichotomous logic.
Thx :)
Work is a funny thing. When it is gone from your life suddenly, at a young age, the loss of purpose that work brings is felt very acutely. That is the biggest challenge, or it was for me in the 3-5 year range after the crash.
I can understand that. I escaped death by sheer luck but surviving meant I had to quit the job I had and the job I dreamed of doing, as a kid. It took me a few years to get over it… And I never worked with the same intensity after that.
I am a Maker; a crafts person.
So am I. Not only with my hands (I even learned to sew, aged 40 and learned soldering electronics in my early 50s) but with my head too. I see no difference except that we don’t use the same raw materials ;)
In all of these things, the common thread is finding purpose in doing whatever thing. It is a seeking of an internal sense of accomplishment
100%. It’s even more important after the loss of something wed used to be able to do and enjoyed doing so much (not even mentioning we may have been good at doing it). Be it in a car accident like it happened to you, or for any other reason. Feeling we’re doing something that’s worth it that is key. And I know will start to sound like a broken record but imho that sense of accomplishment is also something that is being taken away from younger people. They’re not allowed to feel proud of themselves anymore, which is very… destructive.
I don’t get a sense of satisfaction from politics in general.
I think it would be hard to feel otherwise. no matter where one lives. Here in France, say the whole EU, things are not looking great either. But then I consider our last 500 years of history and realize all the hardship our societies have gone through and how they managed to get out of those better/stronger and I think to myself we may be able to go through what is bound to happen, no matter the incompetency/dishonesty of too many of our politicians.
I often feel frustration and injustice. It is a dangerous feeling for a capable but disabled Maker; to feel such a frustration; to feel like one is not in control of one’s destiny. So I avoid it for now, because worrying about things I cannot change is a waste of energy.
I wish so many more people would think likewise. All that saved energy could then be put to good use. Like making stuff ;)
BTW, 3D is something that I’ve been interested in for years but living my spouse in our small apartment (a choice we made decades ago) makes it very difficult to say the least.
The trick is to take very brief notes and then write them out after class (when you still remember the details). Students should be taught to how to take notes (I was, they taught us to take notes and do research in the first year of university).
Forcing students to take notes is counterproductive: I was most successful in those classes in which I wasn’t forced to take notes. It only ever distracted me from listening to the teacher.
Also, for foreign language classes actually being forced to speak the language in class is so valuable. I had one teacher who focused on big cultural projects with very little language instruction and her students (including me) all did pretty poorly.
I noticed more and more younger people thinking along that line. As an old fart myself, I will say I find this as worrisome as realizing the same younger generations are reading less and less books, even going to college.
I will also say it’s because most of those younger people were never taught the proper technique of reading and note-taking (grossly summarized, note-taking is not about trying to write what’s being said by the teacher/speaker, it’s about synthesizing the ideas/infos in one’s own words, so in reality there is very little writing to be done when listening to lesson or a lecture (good lectures are built around a lot of repetitions of the same information, over and over again, so the speaker can be pretty sure most students did get it).
Not being able to take-notes (and to read books) is a huge loss, for those kids. They should demand their teachers or their parents, or anyone that has learned it already, to teach them the technique but why would they even bother asking since they get no opportunity to realize how much they’re missing out by not learning it? I’m sad for them, because they’re the one being screwed up (compared to kids their age that do read and know how to take notes).
100% this. The only thing that should matter is to speak the language with as much excitement/fun/interest as possible. Even grammar, which is essential, comes second to that.
edit: typos.
I was in high school during the early 2000s (which is mostly what I’m thinking of). I had unusable dial-up internet living in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not exactly like I’m so young and I just didn’t take notes because I can look up everything later.
People have different learning styles—I learn by listening. Taking notes (and being forced to simply copy everything on the board) distracts from that, so I’m later forced to review everything again instead of simply picking it up by listening in the moment.
Like I said, it’s exactly what note taking is not supposed to be. Copying is moronic and one should blame the teachers (and their own teachers before them) for ruining a technique that has proven its efficiency.
But whatever. I’m old enough to not worry too much about myself and I also know things won’t get any better before they get a lot worse. So be it.
People that are heavily abstracted in their functional thought do not need notes to learn. The most essential factor is intuitively presented information. Like Richard Feynman said, ‘if you can’t explain it intuitively, you do not understand the subject in the first place.’
I could pass absolutely any test just by attending a class and listening. I absolutely despised the nominal repetitive framework of homework as oppressive authoritarian nonsense. I attended school to learn and any incompetent wretch that could not do their job in the allotted time they were given on the clock, was not my problem to fix on my time. Training me to be a slave that works at home on my own time is an unethical and immoral methodology that I refused to accept in life even as a kid. It is toxic corporate propaganda at the most fundamental level of society. I work on a clock and never for free, and I am exceptionally competent at understanding what I am told, when I am told, without memorization, or demeaning repetition that lowers my bar of nominal expectation and holds me back to the limits of others.
School was largely structured for memorization skills. Memorization is worthless in the real world. No one is reading their notes from school 45 years later. True understanding is always an abstraction and it is that abstract understanding that, when useful, has long term staying power in the mind. Notes aid in memorization, and if that is what is needed for a person to force the mind into an abstract understanding, so be it. Some of us exist only within or on the edge of abstraction and process information directly in this space.
Don’t misunderstand me here. You are not wrong. Most people are not like me in this regard. I tested as an outlier for intuitive inference skills as early as TCAP (Tennessee) in 3rd grade with an invitation to Duke from those results.
I’m simply pointing out that this notes skill is not universal. I would not say I’m the most avid reader, but I have my own hard science fiction universe called Parsec-7 that I like to play with, I’ve read most of Asimov’s fiction, the Dune series, and am sitting in front of a couple hundred books in my closet with everything from optics to astronomy, cycling, mechanical engineering, programming, Linux, to metallurgy, machining, and metal casting. My grammar is terrible, but I generally manage to convey my thoughts to others. My complexity management skills are somewhat weak, and that is the only tangible skill where note taking might have indirectly assisted, but probably not. The abstract concepts underpinning JSON and mind maps are what have helped me far more than notes could have done in any capacity. Anyways, abstraction is the goal. Memorization is a failure.
I did too. I hope like most kids do (there are much funnier things to do). But I did those stupid homework and studied those boring to death lessons. And beside teaching me the value of constant regular work (instead of short bursts of it), at least when applied to boring stuff, that also taught me how to cope with things I have to do even when I don’t like them, even when I despise them like you said.
True that. But up until very recently I was still reading the notes I had taken some 35 years ago while studying Plato or Marx, and a few other philosophers. Let’s just say it also depends the notes ;)
100% agree… also because note-taking was never about memorizing anything but, like i already said, about synthesizing which, in other words, means being able to understand, summarize and rephrase something one is hearing in one’s own words. That is understanding, aka being able to explain to oneself.
Since you’re into reading, I would suggest you may be interested in reading Rousseau’s Social Contract, at the very least the first few chapters but the entire book should be relevant. Read the book itself, not one of the many (and too often stupid) summaries that are available. Rousseau’s considerations are very articulated, summarizing the book (even when done honestly, which is certainly not always the case) will make you miss a lot. I would also suggest his * Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes* (Discourse on Inequality).
I have never read it in English myself (I’m French) so I would not want to suggest a poor translation. (If you read French, the latest edition published by GF, under the direction of Bruno Bernardi, is both cheap as fuck and excellent with many detailed annotations that will help most readers that aren’t already experts ;)
You may also want to read another book, this time not by one of those nasty Swiss thinkers but by a French dude, like me :P It’s titled Discours de la servitude volontaire (Discourse on Voluntary Servitude), by La Boétie. Here again, I have never read it in English and I would not know which translation to suggest. But it’s a great read.
Note that those are old books (Rousseau’s Contract is from 1760s, and La Boétie published his in 1570-something) so you can easily imagine their style may not be what modern days readers are used to. But those are not large books and they are more than worth reading, even more so knowing how impactful they were on our societies (and knowing how often they’re poorly understood by people that can’t be bothered to actually read them).
Despite them being short, they also are also rather dense read and I would encourage any beginner to read them with one very good friend so you won’t feel alone and you should also not feel afraid to freely discuss your impressions and reactions (no fear of being judged between friends, hopefully) no matter how daring/stupid/nasty your thoughts (another thing younger generations are not used to deal with, alas: being judged is a constant nowadays, that certainly won’t help encourage a culture and mentality of real risk-taking) because those are books that are more than likely to provoke some heated discussions and with any luck some disturbing but motivating realizations.
Glad to know that (btw, Asimov was one of my first ‘fan’ read when I was a kid ;). No doubt there are still many (young) readers out there but what matters is the trend, which is not favorable to reading. You know, like when statisticians say that people are making less kids here in the West (or in China, or in Russia). It doesn’t mean no one is having kids anymore, and some families can even even have a lot of kids. It just means that on the whole, in those countries, enough people are not having any kid for the population to start (or to soon start) to decline.
More importantly, not learning proper note-taking (and reading) is not favorable to those kids themselves. It only harm them (it should not impact me, or my spouse).
As a potential employer, who are you more likely to hire between a kid that knows how to pass a school test and a kid that knows how to face whatever you thrown at them (like they’re more than likely to deal with in their job)? Reading and note-taking (aka synthesizing on the fly) are certainly not the sole ways to acquire those skills, but they’re a great way, cheap and easy (if boring).
Once again, all I’m saying is not that reading/writing is good per se (it’s not), nor that those kids are dumber than reading/writing kids. I’m just saying that it’s a huge loss for those kids because they’re a lot less well prepared and equipped to compete against those other kids whose teachers and families want them to acquire those skills in a world that is highly competitive and that will be even more competitive.
As a general rule, I tend to steer away from slogans and from black or white definitions (things like ‘either you’re with us or you’re against us’) type of definitions.
The real question should be: what’s the purpose of educating kids (why the fuck do we force them to waste their younger years sitting for hours in classrooms instead of, say, enjoy playing outside all day long). Only then we should feel allowed to discuss the best best (and worst) ways to achieve that.
The phrase you are looking for in English here is dichotomous logic.
I’ve not been a big reader. It was more of a challenge to read some a couple of series just to say that I have. The vast majority of my books are reference material. I am a Maker; a crafts person. Physical disability from a car crashing into me while riding a bicycle to work 11 years ago has pushed me somewhat into books.
As they say, books about fantasy are for those that regret the past. Books about nonfiction are for those that regret the present. And science fiction is for those that regret the future. Barely surviving a broken neck and back has consequences in the long term that make life much harder and shorter. I know my regrets and what I enjoy reading to escape.
Work is a funny thing. When it is gone from your life suddenly, at a young age, the loss of purpose that work brings is felt very acutely. That is the biggest challenge, or it was for me in the 3-5 year range after the crash.
I owned my own business with employees twice, both times I was painting cars. The hardest lesson to learn with automotive paint and refinishing is how to defeat yourself and your emotions. The perfect standard of automotive paint does not care how many times it takes spraying primer and sanding it down, or prying on some metal, or applying layers of filler. Perfection is a result. It is hard and thankless work because one’s greatest triumph is to go completely unnoticed.
I have done many other jobs too. I’m very adaptable. In my opinion, in business, the person that can infer how something works without needing a reference, or learn from watching someone else do a thing once - is a most valuable skill.
I have always been curious about the lowest level processes I can achieve. I don’t want to go buy a thing I can go make myself. I liked cars and when I was young I read that, of all the skills that car enthusiasts generally possessed, paint was the rare black art that few people dared to learn or try themselves. So the first thing I learned was how to paint. I built motors and worked in a machine shop porting heads for awhile – another rare art. Before the crash that got me, I was working on my car and many projects that were coming together. One of those was building a small home foundry setup to do my own metal castings.
After the crash, I got into programming microcontrollers and etching my own circuit boards. While everyone was sending board designs to China, I was still making my own at home. With programming I am curious about the lowest levels of compute. I like to build my own little circuits and sensors.
I’m into 3d printing and design. I design all my own stuff from scratch in CAD. I’ve learned the geometry and figured out the topological naming issue to make proper designs.
I also like reverse engineering circuits in KiCAD and making documentation graphics in Inkscape. I’ve learned Linux at a reasonably advanced level too. I’ve scratched the surface of astronomy and building my own eyepieces with lens stacks using surplus lenses and junk.
In all of these things, the common thread is finding purpose in doing whatever thing. It is a seeking of an internal sense of accomplishment. It’s all endorphins really. I don’t get a sense of satisfaction from politics in general. I often feel frustration and injustice. It is a dangerous feeling for a capable but disabled Maker; to feel such a frustration; to feel like one is not in control of one’s destiny. So I avoid it for now, because worrying about things I cannot change is a waste of energy.
Thx :)
I can understand that. I escaped death by sheer luck but surviving meant I had to quit the job I had and the job I dreamed of doing, as a kid. It took me a few years to get over it… And I never worked with the same intensity after that.
So am I. Not only with my hands (I even learned to sew, aged 40 and learned soldering electronics in my early 50s) but with my head too. I see no difference except that we don’t use the same raw materials ;)
100%. It’s even more important after the loss of something wed used to be able to do and enjoyed doing so much (not even mentioning we may have been good at doing it). Be it in a car accident like it happened to you, or for any other reason. Feeling we’re doing something that’s worth it that is key. And I know will start to sound like a broken record but imho that sense of accomplishment is also something that is being taken away from younger people. They’re not allowed to feel proud of themselves anymore, which is very… destructive.
I think it would be hard to feel otherwise. no matter where one lives. Here in France, say the whole EU, things are not looking great either. But then I consider our last 500 years of history and realize all the hardship our societies have gone through and how they managed to get out of those better/stronger and I think to myself we may be able to go through what is bound to happen, no matter the incompetency/dishonesty of too many of our politicians.
I wish so many more people would think likewise. All that saved energy could then be put to good use. Like making stuff ;)
BTW, 3D is something that I’ve been interested in for years but living my spouse in our small apartment (a choice we made decades ago) makes it very difficult to say the least.
The trick is to take very brief notes and then write them out after class (when you still remember the details). Students should be taught to how to take notes (I was, they taught us to take notes and do research in the first year of university).