Yet another article on the terribleness of schools as they exist today. It strikes me that Methods of Rationality is in large part a fantasy of good education. So is the Harry Potter/Sherlock Holmes crossover I just started reading. Alicorn’s Radiance is a fair fit to the pattern as well, in that it depicts rapid development of a young character by incredible new experiences. So what solutions are coming out of the rational community? What concrete criteria would we like to see satisfied? Can education be ‘solved’ in a way that will sell outside this community?
The characters in those fics are also vastly more intelligent and conscientious than average. True, current school environments are stifling for gifted kids, but then they are also a very small minority. Self-directed learning is counterproductive for not-so-bright, and attempts to reform schools to encourage “creativity” and away from the nasty test-based system tend to just be smoke-screens for any number of political and ideological goals. Like the drunk man and the lamppost, statistics and science are used for support rather than illumination, and the kids are the ones who suffer.
There are massive structural problems wracking the educational system but I wouldn’t take the provincial perspectives of HPMoR or related fiction as good advice for the changes with the biggest marginal benefit.
What concrete criteria would we like to see satisfied?
I think that’s a bad question. I don’t think that every school should follow the same criteria. It’s perfectly okay if different school teach different things.
http://www.kipp.org/ would be an educational project financed by Bill Gates which tries to use a lot of testing.
On the other hand you have unschooling and enviroments like Sudbury Valley School. I don’t think that every child has to learn the same way. Both ways are viable.
When it comes to the more narrow rationality community I think there more thought about building solutions that educate adults than about educating children.
If however something like Anki helps adults learn, there no real reason why the same idea can’t help children as well.
Similar things go for the Credence game and predictionbook. If those tools can help adults to become more calibrated they probably can also help kids even if some modifications might be needed.
Without having the money to start a completly new school I think it’s good to focus on building tool that build a particular skill.
Yet another article on the terribleness of schools as they exist today. It strikes me that Methods of Rationality is in large part a fantasy of good education. So is the Harry Potter/Sherlock Holmes crossover I just started reading. Alicorn’s Radiance is a fair fit to the pattern as well, in that it depicts rapid development of a young character by incredible new experiences. So what solutions are coming out of the rational community? What concrete criteria would we like to see satisfied? Can education be ‘solved’ in a way that will sell outside this community?
The characters in those fics are also vastly more intelligent and conscientious than average. True, current school environments are stifling for gifted kids, but then they are also a very small minority. Self-directed learning is counterproductive for not-so-bright, and attempts to reform schools to encourage “creativity” and away from the nasty test-based system tend to just be smoke-screens for any number of political and ideological goals. Like the drunk man and the lamppost, statistics and science are used for support rather than illumination, and the kids are the ones who suffer.
There are massive structural problems wracking the educational system but I wouldn’t take the provincial perspectives of HPMoR or related fiction as good advice for the changes with the biggest marginal benefit.
I think that’s a bad question. I don’t think that every school should follow the same criteria. It’s perfectly okay if different school teach different things.
http://www.kipp.org/ would be an educational project financed by Bill Gates which tries to use a lot of testing. On the other hand you have unschooling and enviroments like Sudbury Valley School. I don’t think that every child has to learn the same way. Both ways are viable.
When it comes to the more narrow rationality community I think there more thought about building solutions that educate adults than about educating children. If however something like Anki helps adults learn, there no real reason why the same idea can’t help children as well.
Similar things go for the Credence game and predictionbook. If those tools can help adults to become more calibrated they probably can also help kids even if some modifications might be needed.
Without having the money to start a completly new school I think it’s good to focus on building tool that build a particular skill.