Hey Raj. Thanks a lot for an insightful post, it’s definitely that sort of things I was looking after, regardless if I immediately agree with them or not.
1-self learning: How I read it so far is that instead of selecting “the way” first and optimizing it later, instead it might be a good idea to focus on learning how to learn by yourself first, recognizing what’s the most effective in any given case, be it via internet or an actual human resource such as a tutor.
By the way, my solely main motivation for her to know English was the access to much better materials so she can learn by herself.
I would also check out Sudbury or democratic schools, which are schools with high behavioral space and very low in coercion.
A quick search shows that there are some very reasonably priced democratic schools around. So great to see there are some options like this (at least, I will be able to get some references or even visit them myself)
there are a lot of priors I’m guessing we don’t share that might make some of this not make sense. Please bring them up and I will try to answer them though most answers could probably be found in some way on supermemo.guru.
I think your post does make sense to me on this level. I think I have to first go through the linked material, which will surely take some time to process (thanks!).
1-self learning: How I read it so far is that instead of selecting “the way” first and optimizing it later, instead it might be a good idea to focus on learning how to learn by yourself first, recognizing what’s the most effective in any given case, be it via internet or an actual human resource such as a tutor.
Sort of, though this is mostly my vague theory. I think the ultralearning thing that Panashe mentioned could be a useful framework though I’m not super familiar with it. People like Peter Gray who are experts on homeschooling/self directed learning could also be worth looking into.
By the way, my solely main motivation for her to know English was the access to much better materials so she can learn by herself.
Yeah, that’s a pretty important long-term skill. It would be really challenging to have be able to freely learn whatever you want without access to the English internet.
A quick search shows that there are some very reasonably priced democratic schools around. So great to see there are some options like this (at least, I will be able to get some references or even visit them myself)
Awesome. One thing to be careful of is that people think schools are important for socialization. I like Seymour Papert’s answer to that:
Nothing bothers me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn maths and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities
I’ve found the above criticism fairly true for my experience with school. I ended up with a lot of not great socialization habits that took a long while to unravel.
It feels like I’m going on a bit too much but one other heuristic to consider: try to do for your daughter what you would have liked as a child rather than what you as a parent think you should do. It’s very easy to assume that you know better than your child, and you do, but coercion is really bad. Trying to influence choices by making them appealing is far healthier than forcing things which I think younger you probably would have appreciated too.
Hey Raj. Thanks a lot for an insightful post, it’s definitely that sort of things I was looking after, regardless if I immediately agree with them or not.
1-self learning: How I read it so far is that instead of selecting “the way” first and optimizing it later, instead it might be a good idea to focus on learning how to learn by yourself first, recognizing what’s the most effective in any given case, be it via internet or an actual human resource such as a tutor.
By the way, my solely main motivation for her to know English was the access to much better materials so she can learn by herself.
A quick search shows that there are some very reasonably priced democratic schools around. So great to see there are some options like this (at least, I will be able to get some references or even visit them myself)
I think your post does make sense to me on this level. I think I have to first go through the linked material, which will surely take some time to process (thanks!).
I’m happy to hear that!
Sort of, though this is mostly my vague theory. I think the ultralearning thing that Panashe mentioned could be a useful framework though I’m not super familiar with it. People like Peter Gray who are experts on homeschooling/self directed learning could also be worth looking into.
Yeah, that’s a pretty important long-term skill. It would be really challenging to have be able to freely learn whatever you want without access to the English internet.
Awesome. One thing to be careful of is that people think schools are important for socialization. I like Seymour Papert’s answer to that:
Nothing bothers me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn maths and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities
I’ve found the above criticism fairly true for my experience with school. I ended up with a lot of not great socialization habits that took a long while to unravel.
It feels like I’m going on a bit too much but one other heuristic to consider: try to do for your daughter what you would have liked as a child rather than what you as a parent think you should do. It’s very easy to assume that you know better than your child, and you do, but coercion is really bad. Trying to influence choices by making them appealing is far healthier than forcing things which I think younger you probably would have appreciated too.