It's essential for kids to develop autonomy, to learn to think for themselves and follow their own compass, as when Gatto says "write your own script". Scheduling every minute of every day for a child, always with an adult authority managing their activities, is not the right way to do this :-)
Counterintuitively, I think this is the reason we're seeing a global economic slowdown: the rush to over-education kids early. The result is that too many of them know only how to be part of large corporate tech efforts---but few real independent inventors.
To some degree, there is a prisoners dilemma at play: parents want the best for their kids, and the statistics tell them that those who succeed worked hardest as kids. But they don't realize that in the past that hard work was the result of emergent, self-generated motivation, so they replicate the wrong part of the recipe.
I have some hope that Bitcoin will align incentives better in that regard:
Mathew, you forgot to imbed your links in this sentence:
"The long list of absurdities (here and here, not that this is more than a tiny fraction) are too hard to ignore, and those in the know are laughing about them."
Another thank you for sharing your unique, sincere and real-time exploration of the forces that have been running the world for decades (or much, much longer) without most of us realizing it and how things seems to be approaching a tipping point. I am on the same journey of awakening and have learned so much from you. I hope we meet in person some day. (As an aside, our three kids never attended traditional school and my 16-year old has taken some of your AoPS classes. So we are interested in the bit of your personal life you are sharing now.)
In school I loved mathematics because I loved solving problems. Never thought about it as a meditative process but it makes much sense.
It's easy to get successful when you're motivated because you will not feel the hard work you put in. You could also do the opposite, put in the hard work to start with to get motivated by the success. That is more like growing through pain, but that can work also.
Also love John Taylor Gatto. Ran into his stuff about 20 years ago, when I bombed out of my first attempt at college (I was honestly just burnt out after the torture of public schooling). He was able to articulate a lot of what I had suspected during my high school days, and it was in stark contrast to what my mother (who was a teacher also) always thought about the education system. Suddenly, it became clear that the "problems" my mother had with various elements of the curriculums weren't really problems at all... they were features of a system borne out of the Industrial Revolution to get people functional enough to run the machines, but ignorant/compliant enough not to challenge their preordained role. She's slowly come to realize this over the last couple decades too, after the Common Core eviscerated any semblance of autonomy a teacher had in deciding the best course of instruction.
I discovered John Taylor Gatto after getting burned out of teaching in .gov schools. I lasted 5 years. He perfectly articulated my disgust with the system.
Yes. I ran into Gatto many decades ago, too. Unfortunately, as many have pointed out, the sociopaths rise to the top. We don't want to face up to it, but civilizations rise...and fall. We are in that latter phase now. Immoderate Greatness by Ophuls sums it all up concisely in about 70 pages. https://www.amazon.com/Immoderate-Greatness-Why-Civilizations-Fail/dp/1479243140/
School did me a disservice and it wasn't until after college and a failed career I didn't have the temperament or enough interest in that I learned what interests me. I am 31 and now it feels "too late" to pursue any of those things. Because of the hurdles of captured institutions and also the misunderstanding of those around me who don't see the problems I think are staring us all in our faces. I would live to teach, but schools are a bust. I would live to do rigorous study, but I can't earn money just going to schools that are broken anyways. I'm at a loss of what to do when I witness so many injurious people question nothing around them regarding serious issues.
It seems the teacher and the school have to make the wow factor come alive, otherwise the filter turns on and it’s an uphill battle.
It really has to pack a punch, and your story telling opener method has the power to do just that,.but rather than a cold and isolated problem statement, I would launch from the paradox which was stumbling the original thinkers, before the newer principle in question was discovered, and show how it was discovered, following the breadcrumbs of ideas along the way.
Great article. We pulled our children from public school 5 years ago. Homeschooling is a blast! Changed our lives.
Since I grew up in a family of educators it took me awhile to realize the faults (designed) in our system. I was almost on my way off of that train when I found "The deliberate dumbing down of America" by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt. At that point I jumped off the back of the train and haven't stopped running in the opposite direction since. We have built a rather decent sized homeschool community in our county with hundreds of students, but there are many challenges especially as state policies shift.
It's essential for kids to develop autonomy, to learn to think for themselves and follow their own compass, as when Gatto says "write your own script". Scheduling every minute of every day for a child, always with an adult authority managing their activities, is not the right way to do this :-)
Counterintuitively, I think this is the reason we're seeing a global economic slowdown: the rush to over-education kids early. The result is that too many of them know only how to be part of large corporate tech efforts---but few real independent inventors.
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/the-monetary-wars-part-iv
This also winds up giving capitalism a bad name, where we need to distinguish the incentives of the free from centralizing authoritarian forces.
To some degree, there is a prisoners dilemma at play: parents want the best for their kids, and the statistics tell them that those who succeed worked hardest as kids. But they don't realize that in the past that hard work was the result of emergent, self-generated motivation, so they replicate the wrong part of the recipe.
I have some hope that Bitcoin will align incentives better in that regard:
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/my-favorite-thing-about-bitcoin-metcalfs
Mathew, you forgot to imbed your links in this sentence:
"The long list of absurdities (here and here, not that this is more than a tiny fraction) are too hard to ignore, and those in the know are laughing about them."
Another thank you for sharing your unique, sincere and real-time exploration of the forces that have been running the world for decades (or much, much longer) without most of us realizing it and how things seems to be approaching a tipping point. I am on the same journey of awakening and have learned so much from you. I hope we meet in person some day. (As an aside, our three kids never attended traditional school and my 16-year old has taken some of your AoPS classes. So we are interested in the bit of your personal life you are sharing now.)
Thanks. Fixed.
In school I loved mathematics because I loved solving problems. Never thought about it as a meditative process but it makes much sense.
It's easy to get successful when you're motivated because you will not feel the hard work you put in. You could also do the opposite, put in the hard work to start with to get motivated by the success. That is more like growing through pain, but that can work also.
"The kinds of betrayal of trust we are living through are not the kind a society comes back from."
I remember the moment and exactly where I was when that trust was broken in January 2021.
Also love John Taylor Gatto. Ran into his stuff about 20 years ago, when I bombed out of my first attempt at college (I was honestly just burnt out after the torture of public schooling). He was able to articulate a lot of what I had suspected during my high school days, and it was in stark contrast to what my mother (who was a teacher also) always thought about the education system. Suddenly, it became clear that the "problems" my mother had with various elements of the curriculums weren't really problems at all... they were features of a system borne out of the Industrial Revolution to get people functional enough to run the machines, but ignorant/compliant enough not to challenge their preordained role. She's slowly come to realize this over the last couple decades too, after the Common Core eviscerated any semblance of autonomy a teacher had in deciding the best course of instruction.
I discovered John Taylor Gatto after getting burned out of teaching in .gov schools. I lasted 5 years. He perfectly articulated my disgust with the system.
Yes. I ran into Gatto many decades ago, too. Unfortunately, as many have pointed out, the sociopaths rise to the top. We don't want to face up to it, but civilizations rise...and fall. We are in that latter phase now. Immoderate Greatness by Ophuls sums it all up concisely in about 70 pages. https://www.amazon.com/Immoderate-Greatness-Why-Civilizations-Fail/dp/1479243140/
School did me a disservice and it wasn't until after college and a failed career I didn't have the temperament or enough interest in that I learned what interests me. I am 31 and now it feels "too late" to pursue any of those things. Because of the hurdles of captured institutions and also the misunderstanding of those around me who don't see the problems I think are staring us all in our faces. I would live to teach, but schools are a bust. I would live to do rigorous study, but I can't earn money just going to schools that are broken anyways. I'm at a loss of what to do when I witness so many injurious people question nothing around them regarding serious issues.
It seems the teacher and the school have to make the wow factor come alive, otherwise the filter turns on and it’s an uphill battle.
It really has to pack a punch, and your story telling opener method has the power to do just that,.but rather than a cold and isolated problem statement, I would launch from the paradox which was stumbling the original thinkers, before the newer principle in question was discovered, and show how it was discovered, following the breadcrumbs of ideas along the way.
Great article. We pulled our children from public school 5 years ago. Homeschooling is a blast! Changed our lives.
Since I grew up in a family of educators it took me awhile to realize the faults (designed) in our system. I was almost on my way off of that train when I found "The deliberate dumbing down of America" by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt. At that point I jumped off the back of the train and haven't stopped running in the opposite direction since. We have built a rather decent sized homeschool community in our county with hundreds of students, but there are many challenges especially as state policies shift.
Love John Taylor Gatto. Was far too early with my $MRNA shitputs. Very sad was going to name my yacht Suck My Wakefield
Could I please get your contact info to forward to my TBC husband? thank you
It won't be long before science and scientists become the most despised elements in society for the destruction they've unleashed.