I long ago took advice from Einstein and preferred to know where to look a thing up than to memorise it.
I cannot even memorise my own poetry. And yet almost everyone who meets me says I know more about anything than anyone they met. This was not my objective. I expose myself to knowledge and I seek links between one thing and another as I pursue theories. This is a better way to learn anything than to recite, because much of what can be recited is wrong now, and quite a lot of it was wrong when it was written. Quite apart from which, how much of it is relevant? So I pursue a theory and the bits which tell me the boundaries of what I am trying to find out stick in my mind. Result: I am a trove of knowledge which is useless to other people, but is very useful to me for my own unique purposes.
With that out of the way: schools. I have seen a lot of young Americans leaving school and some of them appear not to know anything about anything. Some do not even know right from left - I am not joking. But this is not to say they do not value knowledge; it is to say that they have never been taught anything useful or interesting, or been shown that learning it can get them anywhere. 'Graduation' is a farce. It often seems to be a matter of making the school look good and in poor areas it seems to require no more than a decent attendance record.
When I completed my Masters Degree (back in 1987 when doing so in an Engineering discipline was actually very hard indeed) I reviewed what I had learned in the education system. Looking back on an IT masters degree and a BSc in Physics, I was forced to conclude that the only things I had done really well at, I had taught myself. University gave me a requirement and some pointers; the rest I either worked at myself or I did not.
Longer term I have come to think of my business training (three weeks at the expense of my employers) as far more effective than anything taught in schools. Why? Because somebody else was making an investment in me and they had to make darn sure it was value for money.
I have come to the conclusion, and did so long ago, that the least effective way to teach anyone anything is to put them in a school and use conventional teaching methods.
To teach kids you need: - Actual standards which are not fudged. - Rewards they can understand for learning things. If they cannot get the idea that this is the way to a career, give them neat toys for doing well until they get the idea of a career. And if they do not, keep giving them neat toys for doing well. - Throw away the idea that poor kids cannot learn anything. My dad was a locomotive engineer. I am working class and it never hindered me, because nobody ever told me I could not learn anything; they just gave me the opportunity and watched me do so. - Forget about running schools for the benefit of teachers, which is all that they exist for, and teach kids in whatever way gets results.
Best: alone, on the internet, with online access to tutorial assistance. It's cheaper than having schools and it gets better than average results with hopeless cases. We know that because when the British government tried it in desperation, perpetual truants exceeded the norm. So why have schools?
We are, quite simply, doing everything as badly as it can possibly be done, and each generation gets dumber. I share your concern that they might get so dumb they do not see the need for their children to do better. But they will be very easy to rule over when they know only what to think, and not how. Education is more dangerous to dictators than the right to bear arms.
I cannot even memorise my own poetry. And yet almost everyone who meets me says I know more about anything than anyone they met. This was not my objective. I expose myself to knowledge and I seek links between one thing and another as I pursue theories. This is a better way to learn anything than to recite, because much of what can be recited is wrong now, and quite a lot of it was wrong when it was written. Quite apart from which, how much of it is relevant? So I pursue a theory and the bits which tell me the boundaries of what I am trying to find out stick in my mind. Result: I am a trove of knowledge which is useless to other people, but is very useful to me for my own unique purposes.
With that out of the way: schools. I have seen a lot of young Americans leaving school and some of them appear not to know anything about anything. Some do not even know right from left - I am not joking. But this is not to say they do not value knowledge; it is to say that they have never been taught anything useful or interesting, or been shown that learning it can get them anywhere. 'Graduation' is a farce. It often seems to be a matter of making the school look good and in poor areas it seems to require no more than a decent attendance record.
When I completed my Masters Degree (back in 1987 when doing so in an Engineering discipline was actually very hard indeed) I reviewed what I had learned in the education system. Looking back on an IT masters degree and a BSc in Physics, I was forced to conclude that the only things I had done really well at, I had taught myself. University gave me a requirement and some pointers; the rest I either worked at myself or I did not.
Longer term I have come to think of my business training (three weeks at the expense of my employers) as far more effective than anything taught in schools. Why? Because somebody else was making an investment in me and they had to make darn sure it was value for money.
I have come to the conclusion, and did so long ago, that the least effective way to teach anyone anything is to put them in a school and use conventional teaching methods.
To teach kids you need:
- Actual standards which are not fudged.
- Rewards they can understand for learning things. If they cannot get the idea that this is the way to a career, give them neat toys for doing well until they get the idea of a career. And if they do not, keep giving them neat toys for doing well.
- Throw away the idea that poor kids cannot learn anything. My dad was a locomotive engineer. I am working class and it never hindered me, because nobody ever told me I could not learn anything; they just gave me the opportunity and watched me do so.
- Forget about running schools for the benefit of teachers, which is all that they exist for, and teach kids in whatever way gets results.
Best: alone, on the internet, with online access to tutorial assistance. It's cheaper than having schools and it gets better than average results with hopeless cases. We know that because when the British government tried it in desperation, perpetual truants exceeded the norm. So why have schools?
We are, quite simply, doing everything as badly as it can possibly be done, and each generation gets dumber. I share your concern that they might get so dumb they do not see the need for their children to do better. But they will be very easy to rule over when they know only what to think, and not how. Education is more dangerous to dictators than the right to bear arms.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment