Is the traditional teaching format damaging students brains?

Bogan

Answer, no.    Even tiny countries like Finland are outperforming US and other western countries schools.    Asian schools are acing subjects like maths.     The problem within western schools is that teaching has become a sheltered workshop for university Artz grads who were not smart enough to do STEM courses.   That is why so many of them are resentful left wing activists with chips on their shoulders.      The quality of teachers in the western world has decline, which is not to say that there are no really good ones.  .    A hundred years ago, about the only profession that smart females could enter was nursing and teaching.     Today, there are many other avenues of employment for smart young women.    Here in Australia year one to six teachers are almost all female, because many young men who may like to do teaching are afraid of being labelled paedophiles.     Howyou sit while you listen or study has nothing to do with it,        

Dreamer

Argument Topic: Humans are built to move, but much better to be in school that in front of the idiot's latern all day.

@theinfectedmaster

People underestimate the power of too much screen time. At least with school you get to spend time in gym class and recess. I worry that this attack on education in general is fueled by home schooling cults including the Institute in Basic Life Principles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_in_Basic_Life_Principles

Dreamer

Argument Topic: Great point about teachers mostly being female.

@Bogan

I recommend the book Fads, Fakes, and Frauds: Exploding Myths in Culture, Science and Psychology by Tomasz Witkowski who shares the same conviction.

MayCaesar

I hated my school experience. There were a number of subjects I was very good at and loved learning about in my spare time: math, physics, computer science, history, literature - I did not need to spend time among 30 kids most of whom could not care less about the subject and had little in common with me in general, going slowly through the material I had learned on my own years ago. And other subjects that I was not interested in were just a waste of time, and I would always have a chess book or some piece of fiction hidden behind the class handbook which I would read, ignoring whatever was happening in the classroom.

I do not think that lack of exercise is the main issue here: in most schools kids get a lot of breaks during which they can run around, plus many go outside after school. The issue is streamlining of the process, with students treated as ants in a hive following the same rails as everyone else. There is little respect for individuality, for unique strengths and weaknesses, for different learning strategies, et cetera.

I have spent pretty much 25 years in the education system in various capacities, from a student to a lecturer to a course designer to a performance assessor, plus I have learned a ton on my own. I believe I have gained a pretty good understanding of how one truly learns something quickly and efficiently. Spoiler alert: it is not by sitting in a classroom with a bunch of random students, listening to an underpaid and dispassionate professor.
The primary ingredient in learning is interest: the more excited you are about the material, the better you learn. There are many ways to induce that excitement, and the best one is to gamify the process. You can turn virtually anything into a game that you will have a blast playing, and a masterful teacher will know exactly how to make such a game. For instance, how does one encourage a 2nd grader to learn the multiplication table? "Hey, here is the table: memorize it over the next week, then pass the test. If you fail, you will have to keep retaking the test weekly until you pass". *yawn* Awful.
Let us switch the assignment up a little bit. "Let's split into 8 groups of 4. Each group will present the part of the multiplication table with the first number from 2 to 9, for instance: 3*1, 3*2, ..., 3*9. For each of the pairs of numbers, you will develop a short story involving them. For 3*4, it could be this: 'Me and 3 friends went to that awesome ice cream place. They had 12 varieties of ice-cream, and we wanted to try them all. So we ordered 3 different flavors each. I had mint chocolate, vanilla and... tofu flavors. The tofu one was interesting, it actually goes back to the Meiji restoration era in Japan...' Feel free to use tools such as ChatGPT to help you get all these facts."
I can guarantee that by the end of this assignment every single kid in the class will know the multiplication table by heart. Furthermore, many kids who previously were not interested in math at all now might start looking for other fun math games and puzzles...

But you have to have a flexible mind in order to come up with effective learning strategies. If you are an educator, especially one produced by the soulless system, then you will likely just follow the script, monotonically read the material in class and give students generic assignments - after all, it takes much less effort, and it is all you have been taught.
I sometimes joke nowadays that ChatGPT 4 could take over all the teaching at public schools and do a better job than 99% teachers out there - and that is a joke that has a huge bucket of truth. Here is a simple prompt a kid wanting to learn the multiplication table can use:

"Hey ChatGPT, I want to learn the multiplication table. Please play the role of the teacher and create a fun game for me so I can learn it." I literally just fed it to ChatGPT 4, and here is what it came up with. Neat!

Absolutely, that sounds like a fun challenge! Let's make learning multiplication fun with a game I'd like to call the "Multiplier Master"!

Here's how it goes:ROUND 1: Journey to Multiplier CastleYou are an explorer traveling towards a grand castle known as the Multiplier Castle. But to get there, you'll have to answer a series of multiplication questions. For each correct answer, you move one step closer to the castle.For instance, if I say "2 times 3", you'd answer with "6", and you advance one step. Remember, the journey is about the process, not just the destination. Ready? Let's start!Question 1: What is 2 times 3?ROUND 2: Doors of the Multiplier CastleCongratulations on reaching the Multiplier Castle! To enter, you must solve the multiplication riddles engraved on each door.For instance, if the riddle says, "I am the product when the first even number meets the first odd number," you would answer "2", as 2 (the first even number) times 1 (the first odd number) equals 2.Here's your first riddle:Riddle 1: I am the product when the smallest two-digit number meets itself. What am I?ROUND 3: Multiplier DragonInside the castle lives a friendly dragon who speaks in multiplication questions. To communicate with him and ask for the treasured "Multiplier Shield," you'll need to answer his questions correctly. The dragon's questions are a bit tricky and involve higher numbers.For instance, if the dragon asks, "What happens when 7 dances with 8?", you'd answer "56" because 7 times 8 equals 56.Ready for the dragon's question?Question 1: What happens when 6 meets 9 in the realm of multiplication?Remember, the key to mastering multiplication is practice, and this game is a fun way to get plenty of it. Enjoy your journey in the world of multiplication!

Then just ask it to start with Round 1 and go from there. Dang, I am almost tearing up: I wish tools like this were available back when I was at elementary school...