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Educated Conformity | |
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Originally written 20051121 I am reading http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/magazine/20prodigies.html The Prodigy Puzzle from the New York Times. It begins with a political story about an organization helping young prodigies before entering a discussion about our ridiculous education system. The focus should have been that people are different, have different abilities, and have different interests. Those interests will change over time. Our current baby-sitting "education" system does not allow for those differences. Using myself as an example: - At four years old, I found geography fascinating, and learned the shapes and locations of every country of the time. I have not tried to learn how they have changed since then. - At eight, I was reading everything I could find about human history. That lasted for four years. I could not remember the year each event happened for more than two days, but I could remember the order of events and what century. - I began learning music at eight, but I was fifteen before I found the instrument for me. I then dedicated eight hours almost every day to mastering it. I still have no interest in performing other people's music, but I create new pieces almost every day. - At eight, I saw my first computer, but I was not allowed to touch it. At ten, I learned to program. I had extremely limited access to computers until I was 25, but native talent and tons of study has made me one of the best business programmers today. - I learned to fix cars in my late teens. Technological advances have made those skills obsolete. - I hated writing until I was in my mid-twenties. I had perfect spelling, an incredible vocabulary, and a good understanding of grammar from reading all the time, but I rarely applied it. Now I write business reports, articles for this website and others, and occasionally write books. - I tested at college-level while still in elementary school, but that had no impact on my academic career. I wasted much of my early life in classes I could have taught. The "education" system was not designed for me. History class was about dates, which required me to review before the tests, but the information was (deliberately) forgotten by the next week. Music was an extra, which my family could not afford. Computers were expensive; again my family could not afford one. I did well as long as English class was about spelling, vocabulary, and grammar, but writing papers annoyed me. Good spelling ability is not a factor in successful writing. Most Internet writers confuse "lose" and "loose". A writer for ZDNet used "buy" for "by" (2005-11-20), another used "if" for "of" (2005-11-28); often ZDNet has sentences that are complete nonsense until you replace the words used with the words meant. My father manages to misspell the simplest words, but successfully wrote reports for our court system. I have perfect spelling (and know how to use a dictionary), but I do not have perfect typing. Computerized spell-checkers and a good editor or three can offset poor spelling. Why does an automotive mechanic need to spends years of his life learning to spell? Why does a musician need perfect spelling? Why do they need to know the dates of every battle in Europe and North America? (And why don't they need to know the dates of every battle in South America?) Before the Industrial Revolution, young people learned a trade. The apprenticeship system made certain a blacksmith knew all that was necessary to be a good blacksmith. An apprentice weaver learned how to weave. A cowboy learned how to rustle cattle. Today, many jobs require basic computer skills, but few schools teach them. Many jobs require good relationship skills, but few schools teach them. Many jobs require much job-specific skills, but few schools allow the students to focus on a particular job until they are a teenager. Any prodigy needs to focus on their talent from a very young age, but the "education" system requires everybody to spend much time on unrelated subjects. A friend's child hates math; give her a few years and she may be interested. I remember my sister throwing her math homework across the room when she was thirteen; today she is an accountant. Teach children about their current interests, and they will quickly learn much. Force them to learn other subjects, and they learn to hate school. The solution is to discard the concept of "grades" based on age. Let the students interested in history work together. Let those interested in math work together. Let the older students assist younger students, or employ them as research assistants. Let the children who insist on playing with blocks learn architecture and engineering, and give them other materials to lead them into math and physics. Letting children focus on their own interests will keep their interest in learning. Letting the age groups mix will help teach teamwork and leadership. Letting prodigies quickly advance in their field of talents will produce more prodigies. Letting slower children find something at which they excel will allow them the confidence to attempt other subjects. Those that cannot learn anything can be entered into silly "No Child Left Behind" programs that teach very little about many subjects useless to life so they can grow up to be politicians. Mixing age groups will teach tolerance. The slower students can work with younger students. Faster students will work with older students. Some students will learn one subject quickly while needing more time on others. Some will learn most subjects at the same pace. Let every child learn at their own pace. Set very generous guidelines for when basic skills must be learned. By ten, children should understand addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. If they reach that age without the skills, give them focused study on math for a few weeks. Then let them return to their interests. Check again next year. Teachers should spend time or assign tutors to teach the basics to those past the specified age, but limit the time to less than one day per week. Remove the scoring system, the chance of failure, and punishing teamwork. There are few scores in adult life, and few chances for failure. If a report is not good enough, an adult keeps working on it. If they have difficulty, they ask for help; in our current system, this is called cheating. Teamwork and persistence are more important for most tasks than meeting arbitrary deadlines, and with those skills, most deadlines will be met. Everyone knows the American education system is broken. There are many skills more important than memorization of facts easily found on the Internet. Teach teamwork, leadership, and how to learn by letting children work together on their current interests. Let them learn to read by doing research. Let them learn to write by writing reports. Let them learn math by working on projects. Let children enjoy learning, and they will be learning for the rest of their lives.
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