<3 You're awesome for wanting to learn. Period. Too many people forget that there's ALWAYS things to learn.
I'll second what others have said about you not really "missing" much. You have a very specialized skill set, just like everyone else. I have forgotten most of what I learned in high school and college, particularly the math. But we all take away what we need and leave the rest. Nothing wrong with that.
That said, here's some suggestions:
Check out TED.com. They have lots of short videos of experts giving talks on...god, just about anything. They're usually not geared towards a specialized audience, so they should be interesting to people without any specialized knowledge. They won't teach you like a course will, but they will totally give you bits of info and be entertaining at the same time.
Also, Google Books and The Gutenberg Project have just about any classic you might want, for free. I'd check them first.
I'll also speak up for science. Science is nothing short of observing earth and life and how things work. Why do different things freeze at different temperatures? Why do drugs work? How do our bodies work? How do animals behave, and how does that help them survive? How was our planet and solar system formed? etc etc etc. This is all science. Personally I think that everyone should have enough biology to know what DNA, proteins, and cells are, and why they're important. Also to know what evolution is and how it works, because it's the basis of understanding a lot of how every life form got to where it is. Also enough ecology/environmental science to know things like the water cycle and what an ecosystem is and how everything in it is interconnected.
Also important is the scientific method and an idea of how science is done (that entire little astronomy 101 site looks promising).
For non-science things, folks have mostly hit you with suggestions for classics reading. I hated most classics...found them boring as snot. One exception was Jack London, who wrote about the gold-rush era in...Alaska? I'd suggest reading Call of the Wild, which is the shorter of his novels but quite good. Both it and White Fang were about dogs, and showed some of the cruelty (both dog on dog and man on dog cruelty) of a dog's life, so keep that in mind.
For history...god, I'd hit up Wikipedia. Try "history", and then just pick up on an area or period you're interested in, and start link surfing. I've learned more in an afternoon on Wikipedia than I ever did in History class. Same with geography: check out some maps and have an idea of where things are and what kind of people live there.
Politics is also important. Know what the main political parties stand for, what types of laws they like and dislike, that kind of thing.
That'll keep you busy for awhile, I imagine. :D Just have fun with the learning.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 01:28 am (UTC)I'll second what others have said about you not really "missing" much. You have a very specialized skill set, just like everyone else. I have forgotten most of what I learned in high school and college, particularly the math. But we all take away what we need and leave the rest. Nothing wrong with that.
That said, here's some suggestions:
Check out TED.com. They have lots of short videos of experts giving talks on...god, just about anything. They're usually not geared towards a specialized audience, so they should be interesting to people without any specialized knowledge. They won't teach you like a course will, but they will totally give you bits of info and be entertaining at the same time.
Also, Google Books and The Gutenberg Project have just about any classic you might want, for free. I'd check them first.
I'll also speak up for science. Science is nothing short of observing earth and life and how things work. Why do different things freeze at different temperatures? Why do drugs work? How do our bodies work? How do animals behave, and how does that help them survive? How was our planet and solar system formed? etc etc etc. This is all science. Personally I think that everyone should have enough biology to know what DNA, proteins, and cells are, and why they're important. Also to know what evolution is and how it works, because it's the basis of understanding a lot of how every life form got to where it is. Also enough ecology/environmental science to know things like the water cycle and what an ecosystem is and how everything in it is interconnected.
Also important is the scientific method and an idea of how science is done (that entire little astronomy 101 site looks promising).
For non-science things, folks have mostly hit you with suggestions for classics reading. I hated most classics...found them boring as snot. One exception was Jack London, who wrote about the gold-rush era in...Alaska? I'd suggest reading Call of the Wild, which is the shorter of his novels but quite good. Both it and White Fang were about dogs, and showed some of the cruelty (both dog on dog and man on dog cruelty) of a dog's life, so keep that in mind.
For history...god, I'd hit up Wikipedia. Try "history", and then just pick up on an area or period you're interested in, and start link surfing. I've learned more in an afternoon on Wikipedia than I ever did in History class. Same with geography: check out some maps and have an idea of where things are and what kind of people live there.
Politics is also important. Know what the main political parties stand for, what types of laws they like and dislike, that kind of thing.
That'll keep you busy for awhile, I imagine. :D Just have fun with the learning.