Mal Education /shando/

<b>[shando]" I think this might be more serious than just "laziness". I am concerned that mainstream science in this case (redefinition of meter) has confused fact with conjecture (ie: assuming that "c" is a constant everywhere/everytime)."</b>

Well, it started as lazyness. A lot of problems do. But it does seem to have outgrown its humble origins.

<b>[shando]"... I am waiting anxiously for some group of young game developers to come up with something that will change the K-12 educational paradigm - perhaps a game that will educate the players in all the basics as a side-effect of playing it."</b>

Interesting. I also believe that the future of education lies in the hands of the young. And especially in the hands of game developers. But do not over look musicians, artists and fiction writers. Especially the young ones.

The kind of creativity that used to belong to scientists and engineers now lives mostly in the hearts and minds of these other groups. <u>But they will bring it back to us.</u>

In fact, they are in the process of doing that as we speak. But my dad's generation (with crony capitalism and an unsuccessful attempt <u>by some</u> to institute a Christian theocracy) then my generation (with crony socialism and a hopefully unsuccessful attempt <u>by some</u> to institute an Atheist theocracy) really screwed things up. We have some dark times ahead before we work out the kinks from these fiascos and the future starts looking bright again. I hope to see you on the other side.

LB

<b>[shando]"... to then help the student discover his/her special (peculiar) talents and develop them to their fullest potential. What a wonderful world that would be!"</b>

We have the technology to build that wonderful world right now. But the grown-ups are not willing to let new people try new ideas.

<ul>Stiffling competition and cooperation and new ideas is the hall mark of cronyism. Getting to the top is nice, but staying there is hard work. Some prefer to rig the rules so they can stay on top without working.

Politicians salivate at the prospect of helping them.
</ul>
Actually, they (politicians - in both parties - and their cronies) can't stop progress they can only slow it down. When have the young EVER paid attention to the old? Not doing so can be fatal to some of the young, but the survivors end up saving all of mankind. Life is so strange.

Even brutally repressive versions of crony capitalism (China) and crony socialism (USSR) have failed or are in the process of failing to prevent it (change, progress, new stuff). So a mildly/moderately repressive example of mixed crony capitalism and crony socialism (USA) has little chance of succeeding.

But they (politicians - in both parties - and their cronies) will still try. Like I said, dark times ahead. But then things will get better.

LB

<b>[shando]"A good place to start might be an automated on-line tutor for the grade 7 courses. Another approach might be to pay students to achieve certain learning goals - we pay teachers to teach, why not pay students to learn? Give kids a motive and then stand back!"</b>

There is actually quite a bit of activity re automated on-line education. But we are early in the process. Organizations grow like organisms - slow at first, then a rapid growth phase, then slow again. And eventually they die. It's called an "S" curve.

Sometimes an organization can reinvent itself and stack a new S curve on top of an old one. Organisms rarely accomplish this, but perhaps mankind will figure it out soon.

Rather than try to solve the problems yourself (too old, eh? don't sell yourself short) spend some time looking at what others are doing. Most organizations like we are discussing here are in the early-slow-growth stage. Take notes for a while, then think about supporting some of the better (in your opinion, no one will know for sure) efforts. Maybe with money, maybe something else.

As to motivation.

There have been and currently are some experiments with your payment idea. I suspect it will work to some extent, but most of the kids that really need help will just figure out how to game the system. The money will get spent, but it wll be <u>staggeringly</u> inefficient due to the monopolistic nature of the educational organzations that now exist.

***

How about this? Kids are natural learning machines. Public schools are (not seem to be - are) designed to stiffle this as soon and as hard as possible. You cannot pay kids enough to stop learning. But you can make them sit still and throw random/irrelevant stuff at them and SAY you are teaching, and they will lose interest.

Just get rid of public schools. Problem solved.

What about the poor? I'd love to sponsor a kid or two if there were reasonable schools at reasonable prices. So would millions of other people.

<b>[shando] "Social interaction that might seem to be missing from a web-based individual learning system could become just another learning objective with structured social experiences available within the student's community, supplementing the on-line part. This might be more effective that the bully-mediated system in use within the school system now."</b>

Solitary confinement would be better for some kids than the "bully-mediated" social interaction we have in many public schools these days. (Believe it or not, there have been reports of bullying in private schools as well. But the perps get taken care of PDQ for the most part.) Obviously not all public schools are hell holes, but the ones that are tend to stay that way. (A parent of the bully is often either a politician or a crony of a politician, so the school administrators look the other way fearing for their cushy jobs. It is not unheard of for a bully's victim to be punished if she fights back.)

There might be a way to save the public-school-business-model: limit the student body at any one campus to around 250 kids. The thing that allows bullies to exist is anonymity, and that is created as soon as you can walk the halls between classes and see ANYONE you do not recognize.

<b>[shando] "I haven't quite figured how to replace the babysitter function of the present school system, but I am working on it.</b>

Keep us posted.