Seems to me that finding optimal education could be divided into three subproblems:
how to teach more effectively?
what to teach?
how to instill the rationalist mindset?
Most of my ideas are about the first subproblem, because I see so many low-hanging fruit in the current system, even without attempting any radical change.
For example, a sane country would have all school knowledge (at least at elementary and middle school level) available as free videos, free e-books, and free automated exams. I mean, if the official goal of “general education” is to force the knowledge down everyone’s throat, why wouldn’t you make it as accessible as possible?
Costs? Peanuts, compared to the costs of education as it is now. But think how convenient it would be e.g. for kids who missed the lesson because they were sick. For homeschoolers who can’t find a better alternative for a specific subject. For kids who didn’t understand the lesson at school, and want to try again. For adults who want to refresh their memory of the subject. How simple it would be to add another subject. How less stressful it could be if kids could practice their exams at home, with no penalty for failing.
Speaking about small groups with tutors, I have heard from homeschooling parents that it takes about 1 hour to teach at home what they teach at school in 1 day. At school a lot of time is wasted on discipline, waiting while your classmate is examined, etc. Also, the school is “45 minutes of something, a short break, 45 minutes of something completely unrelated, and again, and again, returning to the original topic 2 days later”, which seems far from optimal.
From this perspective, tutoring in smaller groups would not necessarily need to quadruple the workforce, if the tutor could teach the same amount of knowledge 4× faster, which seems achievable, at least for some type of student. The tutor’s efficiency could be further increased by using video lessons, something like “kids watch 30 minutes of video, spend 30 minutes debating with each other, then 1 hour with the tutor”. With automated exams.
The question of “how to best educate this one specific person” (the OP Q) is very, very different than the question of “how to educate the 67% of the population within one SD of average*” (and also different from the question of “how to educate over 90% of the population”).
*different challenges exist when considering general intelligence, self-motivation/executive function, and family resources as the metric of interest. Many, “how to fix education” plans seem to assume that all kids are “close enough to how I was (or my kid is)”
Thanks Vil. I agree with Ericf comment that you seem to try to take it more generically than I intended (i.e. I realize that I have resources 99% of the local population doesn’t). That said, I fully agree with you on these points.
it takes about 1 hour to teach at home what they teach at school in 1 day
These are good datapoints, thanks.
And yeah, I would hope that with internet and some good courses which would give the kids some “library” of what I could learn + mixed with the self-driven learning wouldn’t need a full attention of a tutor.
By the way, Khan Academy is already localized to Czech language (including dubbed explanatory videos). Recommended. Also, most of the Il était une fois…series were dubbed.
I believe there are already many great resources out there. What needs to be done is to properly review them, and catalogue the good ones. Just knowing that a needle exists somewhere is the haystack is not useful enough. From my perspective, filtering and cataloguing is the most meaningful thing the school can do. (It could also be done by a group of volunteers with a web page, of course.) Whatever reservations I have about the school system, I still trust the school textbooks on physics more than I trust random internet videos on quantum physics. (Of course, you can buy the textbooks without attending the school.)
Seems to me that finding optimal education could be divided into three subproblems:
how to teach more effectively?
what to teach?
how to instill the rationalist mindset?
Most of my ideas are about the first subproblem, because I see so many low-hanging fruit in the current system, even without attempting any radical change.
For example, a sane country would have all school knowledge (at least at elementary and middle school level) available as free videos, free e-books, and free automated exams. I mean, if the official goal of “general education” is to force the knowledge down everyone’s throat, why wouldn’t you make it as accessible as possible?
Costs? Peanuts, compared to the costs of education as it is now. But think how convenient it would be e.g. for kids who missed the lesson because they were sick. For homeschoolers who can’t find a better alternative for a specific subject. For kids who didn’t understand the lesson at school, and want to try again. For adults who want to refresh their memory of the subject. How simple it would be to add another subject. How less stressful it could be if kids could practice their exams at home, with no penalty for failing.
Speaking about small groups with tutors, I have heard from homeschooling parents that it takes about 1 hour to teach at home what they teach at school in 1 day. At school a lot of time is wasted on discipline, waiting while your classmate is examined, etc. Also, the school is “45 minutes of something, a short break, 45 minutes of something completely unrelated, and again, and again, returning to the original topic 2 days later”, which seems far from optimal.
From this perspective, tutoring in smaller groups would not necessarily need to quadruple the workforce, if the tutor could teach the same amount of knowledge 4× faster, which seems achievable, at least for some type of student. The tutor’s efficiency could be further increased by using video lessons, something like “kids watch 30 minutes of video, spend 30 minutes debating with each other, then 1 hour with the tutor”. With automated exams.
The question of “how to best educate this one specific person” (the OP Q) is very, very different than the question of “how to educate the 67% of the population within one SD of average*” (and also different from the question of “how to educate over 90% of the population”).
*different challenges exist when considering general intelligence, self-motivation/executive function, and family resources as the metric of interest. Many, “how to fix education” plans seem to assume that all kids are “close enough to how I was (or my kid is)”
Thanks Vil. I agree with Ericf comment that you seem to try to take it more generically than I intended (i.e. I realize that I have resources 99% of the local population doesn’t). That said, I fully agree with you on these points.
These are good datapoints, thanks.
And yeah, I would hope that with internet and some good courses which would give the kids some “library” of what I could learn + mixed with the self-driven learning wouldn’t need a full attention of a tutor.
By the way, Khan Academy is already localized to Czech language (including dubbed explanatory videos). Recommended. Also, most of the Il était une fois… series were dubbed.
I believe there are already many great resources out there. What needs to be done is to properly review them, and catalogue the good ones. Just knowing that a needle exists somewhere is the haystack is not useful enough. From my perspective, filtering and cataloguing is the most meaningful thing the school can do. (It could also be done by a group of volunteers with a web page, of course.) Whatever reservations I have about the school system, I still trust the school textbooks on physics more than I trust random internet videos on quantum physics. (Of course, you can buy the textbooks without attending the school.)