I suggest that the tried and true organic route is much better. Find someone who can become your disciple, study your work and continue teaching it on after you pass away.
Eventually, the lineage will grow large enough to become a sort of religious organisation. You could write a book to serve as a guide.
100 to 200 years from now, it would become an important institution because it will be effective.
Gradually, that will be corrupted as it becomes a target for powerful groups. And the process will start again.
If the web applications are closed I would still try an alternate route. Who knows if you get to talk to people those that are not indoctrinated in the inner circle might be swayed to support your recommendations. As you say there could be a small benefit to having participated so it would be a sort of win even if you are sidelined.
Rubbing shoulders with the sleaze would probably be tiresome but perhaps you could find other like minded individuals who are in the system for the right reasons and stage a takeover of the educational system in one or more states. If one state had all the Olympiad podium places for a few years running it would be a glitch in the data that could make people think.
I was a maths Olympiad finalist in my youth twice (science once) and enjoyed the experience. These days my brain is ossified enough that I struggle with new information and this is why I am eager for kids to get the right information early, it is very hard to learn how to avoid propaganda at a later stage.
Trump is on record saying he wants to delegate education to the states. This may be a ploy to make it even worse and sectarian than what it is now but with the right push and the support of parents if the vaccine scam is properly exposed you might be able to change minds and implement some changes.
I wish you the best and was rather shocked to see so many doom sayers in your comments.
Gratified that you looked into the project so thank you.
The whole point of bureaucracy and election politics is to provide the illusion of a route to reform followed by making it as difficult as possible for anyone to get anywhere.
It is like a castle that is built to confuse invading armies.
This bottlenecks the reformist movements by forcing them to focus on one issue at a time bringing them into conflict with eachother over what needs that focus and how to fix it.
As a result they begin fighting eachother over their differences and ignoring similarities. Almost nothing gets done, and anything which does happen gets undone quickly by powerful subversive groups using psychology, blackmail, disinformation, extra judicial violence and bribery.
What we have then is a battle between large scale synchronised debate of systemic issues constrained by an entrenched bureaucracy versus asynchronous guerilla style subversion unconstrained by anything at all.
Polycrisis is intended to make it impossible to focus.
It is like a computer that is infected with a virus that constantly engineers new problems to deal with to keep the user occupied trying to maintain basic functionality.
It claims that the police are investigating you, or that the computer has been hacked, or it will invent fake error messages.
It demands that the user complete a survey to fix it. But the surveys get longer and more difficult with each passing day. They will be forced to watch ads, or send money to various accounts, all just to enjoy using what used to be free.
Given time to think, the user will realise that they are just endlessly increasing their future debts.
So it is more effective the more you can keep the user panicking, keep them irrational and incoherent. The more desperately they need the system to start working again immediately, the more willing they will be to sell out.
I think most of what you say is true. However I also have a belief that by KNOWING what you/we know we could perhaps score some small victories against the expected opposition. Ignore the computer virus by loading good software on top of it without trying to directly oppose or eliminate it.
The biggest danger we face is total censorship and having any official position gives a small chance of getting the word out or starting small change. Those not on the take may learn something and may be heartened to act ethically. I believe even a little power at the top will have more force than a little at the bottom. If we cannot get the message out to the grass roots to build parallel systems then we have to try our best to at least get a handle on the communications sector and for future change education as Mathew says.
I'd definitely vote for you, although I have doubts about the website and whether or not it's just a data harvesting operation. I trust you know your own weaknesses well enough that you're sure your soul can survive a position of power. I know I'd fail.
Do I support you? Very much so. My son used AoPs books, starting from Beast Academy. Next as a first and second year student of the Jagiellonian University in Poland, he participated in world finals in Inter Collegiate Computer Team Programing Contest having the highest honorable mention twice. - a tiny bit short on luck to ger a medal) and now he is a coach for his university teams. (One can participate in the world finals only twice) Starting next year, he will be a Director of Polish Junior Programing Olympiad. And it all started with AoPs books!
This was my thought when it was brought up during the llvestream last night but I was hesitant to say it - I will say it here:
I don't know anything about anything, but my gut tells me that if I were in your place, I would be wary, skeptical. and keep in mind what happened with the DMED, that it sucked up a lot of your time...
If - IF - you could truly have influence, I would say Yes go for it. And maybe it is worth it to test the waters. But it seems like chances are it might be a time-suck.I guess I would ask what your gut tells you.
(from Jen S. btw, changed my substack tag a while back).
You are very aware of the challenges you would face being a part of this "Fix Education" team. I am not in a position to tell you what to do. This is your decision but if you should decide to participate I will give you my vote.
I am in Scotland, UK. The education system here is deeply flawed, from primary to universities, (I have a 13 year old granddaughter).
I love reading your work and appreciate your refreshing, clear approach. Education is obviously one of your passions. If you feel up to dealing with the inevitable games etc you should give it a try. I wish you success in your endeavours.
Like others commenting here today, I would guess that your time would be wasted trying to work within the hegelian system. Having had experience with all types of schooling options, including homeschooling, with my offspring, the system and many/most people in it push for mediocrity and resist family involvement, contradicting their own claims. A while ago I read that the lowest performing individuals in college entrance tests went into education. That coupled with their moralistic visions of wokeness that they have been propagandized with means that they believe it to be cruel, racist, that high expectations are set for everyone.
You'd be best doing it independently with like minded people and outside the corrupt bureaucracy.
I'm hoping that you see hope in the process. Truth, Beauty, and Goodness must win but only manifests itself through people. Parents must see themselves as the first educators but they are fighting their own battle to emerge from the Prussian model. Mathew you have the gift of seeing the invisible and sharing it in a way that makes it visible to those that take the time to listen. It's your calling.
So far, I haven't met anyone who studied from anyone's homeschooling curriculum that did not seem years behind the students I worked with on their math education. I would wager on the weakest math student in any class I've held to score higher than the highest scoring student in the nation working with only the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum.
Curriculum is only one piece of the game. How the culture is run is the larger piece.
We are members of the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum. I've enjoyed most his english classes, math and civics classes. But my kids would quit his math classes in a second if they had the opportunity to take classes with Mathew Crawford. Not a fan of Ron Paul's history.
I think the curriculum is just bad. Probably because the people who wrote it are not real mathematicians.
My hot take.
Many of them promote rote memorisation of formulas instead of learning the fundamentals, leaving students confused and stranded with no idea how to apply the concepts in novel ways.
Okay. Ryan Dawson comes to mind or other expat kind of culture that could loosely come together. Or are you seeking the damaged bifurcated brains from mK that enickson and James delingpole were recently podcasting about?
Creating the culture you want to teach in will be awesome.
Loved your chat with Doc Malik. As a retired geek, it made me realize how poor technical and academic education has become since my time in the 70s and 80s. I fear that many institutional proponents will want to save their jobs in any Trump-driven education reform. Rebuilding an existing system usually fails badly, as seen in most industries. It needs to be dismantled, along with the existing staff, and started from scratch
Any government run initiative that tries to tackle foundational (and generational) long term issues will inevitably become corrupted. It's just a matter of time.
Any enduring solution needs to come from the bottom up, be autonomous and designed/implemented by the people for the people. (There are other necessary conditions for it to be enduring. These are just the initial necessary conditions).
I believe small businesses should spearhead educational initiatives and morph into educational institutions (of sorts). A business should be a "learning organization" that produces outstanding educational material for its employees, employees families (including and especially children), and for the community they belong to. (i.e. open source and transparent).
Starting new businesses with this mindset is a lot easier than transforming existing businesses. The part I haven't fully figured out yet is how to interview potential employees.
(One of the main aims of each business would be to educate and grow people "out of the business", so they can start their own autonomous successful business and repeat the pattern (if they are so inclined). A small business shouldn't have more 50 to 100 employees).
Mathew, I just skimmed your article and glanced at your hesitation but you are just what they are looking for, at least in the Vivek Elon world. Read el gato malo’s piece last week about the brilliant people that are being attracted to going to DC and making a difference. You can. I have been waiting for you to start into the school building again and my daughter in law is a brilliant teacher that is now homeschooling. I have encouraged her to watch you, my son does. They left Massachusetts in 2022 for Tennessee to get away from the Amherst, MA toxicity.
Give it a shot. You could meet some interesting people, make a difference and always run away if it was wrong.
Back when I was early 30’s and with a 1 year old the former governor of Vermont (Snelling) was running for US Senate against first term senator Patrick Leary. I followed politics and took a chance to work on the campaign as finance manager. We lost. Leahy was in office for decades. The former governor sailed his yacht, then ran again for governor and died in office. I took my shot with no money and a year old kid. It cost me, but I didn’t regret it.
Shining more light on the process alone would bring value. If you can stomach it, go for it!
In a word, no.
It's probably gonna be a waste of your time.
I suggest that the tried and true organic route is much better. Find someone who can become your disciple, study your work and continue teaching it on after you pass away.
Eventually, the lineage will grow large enough to become a sort of religious organisation. You could write a book to serve as a guide.
100 to 200 years from now, it would become an important institution because it will be effective.
Gradually, that will be corrupted as it becomes a target for powerful groups. And the process will start again.
I hope that I regain the time and energy to work it up into a book.
If the web applications are closed I would still try an alternate route. Who knows if you get to talk to people those that are not indoctrinated in the inner circle might be swayed to support your recommendations. As you say there could be a small benefit to having participated so it would be a sort of win even if you are sidelined.
Rubbing shoulders with the sleaze would probably be tiresome but perhaps you could find other like minded individuals who are in the system for the right reasons and stage a takeover of the educational system in one or more states. If one state had all the Olympiad podium places for a few years running it would be a glitch in the data that could make people think.
I was a maths Olympiad finalist in my youth twice (science once) and enjoyed the experience. These days my brain is ossified enough that I struggle with new information and this is why I am eager for kids to get the right information early, it is very hard to learn how to avoid propaganda at a later stage.
Trump is on record saying he wants to delegate education to the states. This may be a ploy to make it even worse and sectarian than what it is now but with the right push and the support of parents if the vaccine scam is properly exposed you might be able to change minds and implement some changes.
I wish you the best and was rather shocked to see so many doom sayers in your comments.
Gratified that you looked into the project so thank you.
It'll just be a dmed fiasco.
The whole point of bureaucracy and election politics is to provide the illusion of a route to reform followed by making it as difficult as possible for anyone to get anywhere.
It is like a castle that is built to confuse invading armies.
This bottlenecks the reformist movements by forcing them to focus on one issue at a time bringing them into conflict with eachother over what needs that focus and how to fix it.
As a result they begin fighting eachother over their differences and ignoring similarities. Almost nothing gets done, and anything which does happen gets undone quickly by powerful subversive groups using psychology, blackmail, disinformation, extra judicial violence and bribery.
What we have then is a battle between large scale synchronised debate of systemic issues constrained by an entrenched bureaucracy versus asynchronous guerilla style subversion unconstrained by anything at all.
Polycrisis is intended to make it impossible to focus.
It is like a computer that is infected with a virus that constantly engineers new problems to deal with to keep the user occupied trying to maintain basic functionality.
It claims that the police are investigating you, or that the computer has been hacked, or it will invent fake error messages.
It demands that the user complete a survey to fix it. But the surveys get longer and more difficult with each passing day. They will be forced to watch ads, or send money to various accounts, all just to enjoy using what used to be free.
Given time to think, the user will realise that they are just endlessly increasing their future debts.
So it is more effective the more you can keep the user panicking, keep them irrational and incoherent. The more desperately they need the system to start working again immediately, the more willing they will be to sell out.
I think most of what you say is true. However I also have a belief that by KNOWING what you/we know we could perhaps score some small victories against the expected opposition. Ignore the computer virus by loading good software on top of it without trying to directly oppose or eliminate it.
The biggest danger we face is total censorship and having any official position gives a small chance of getting the word out or starting small change. Those not on the take may learn something and may be heartened to act ethically. I believe even a little power at the top will have more force than a little at the bottom. If we cannot get the message out to the grass roots to build parallel systems then we have to try our best to at least get a handle on the communications sector and for future change education as Mathew says.
I'm not saying nobody should take that position to try and subvert the subversion.
I'm just saying it shouldn't be mathew, as it would be a waste of his talents.
It's like sending the captain of the ship to clean the galleys.
Yes, this is what Kissinger, and many other monsters have done, but his would be positive rather than evil. I support this idea, Jack.
I'd definitely vote for you, although I have doubts about the website and whether or not it's just a data harvesting operation. I trust you know your own weaknesses well enough that you're sure your soul can survive a position of power. I know I'd fail.
The data harvesting operations are a concern. Everyone concerned should have a dummy email for spam and surveys.
Or a one time email for example:
https://www.guerrillamail.com/
https://burnermail.io/
Protonmail also offers an email alias solution that you can delete whenever you want.
I love burner emails
Do I support you? Very much so. My son used AoPs books, starting from Beast Academy. Next as a first and second year student of the Jagiellonian University in Poland, he participated in world finals in Inter Collegiate Computer Team Programing Contest having the highest honorable mention twice. - a tiny bit short on luck to ger a medal) and now he is a coach for his university teams. (One can participate in the world finals only twice) Starting next year, he will be a Director of Polish Junior Programing Olympiad. And it all started with AoPs books!
And the curriculum is only one step of the best process.
This was my thought when it was brought up during the llvestream last night but I was hesitant to say it - I will say it here:
I don't know anything about anything, but my gut tells me that if I were in your place, I would be wary, skeptical. and keep in mind what happened with the DMED, that it sucked up a lot of your time...
If - IF - you could truly have influence, I would say Yes go for it. And maybe it is worth it to test the waters. But it seems like chances are it might be a time-suck.I guess I would ask what your gut tells you.
(from Jen S. btw, changed my substack tag a while back).
Write a book, build from the outside. Institutions do not put the students first over time. But your ideas for education are valuable.
You are very aware of the challenges you would face being a part of this "Fix Education" team. I am not in a position to tell you what to do. This is your decision but if you should decide to participate I will give you my vote.
I am in Scotland, UK. The education system here is deeply flawed, from primary to universities, (I have a 13 year old granddaughter).
I love reading your work and appreciate your refreshing, clear approach. Education is obviously one of your passions. If you feel up to dealing with the inevitable games etc you should give it a try. I wish you success in your endeavours.
Yes, as long as there is no NDA and you can share what you learn going inside the belly of the beast.
Like others commenting here today, I would guess that your time would be wasted trying to work within the hegelian system. Having had experience with all types of schooling options, including homeschooling, with my offspring, the system and many/most people in it push for mediocrity and resist family involvement, contradicting their own claims. A while ago I read that the lowest performing individuals in college entrance tests went into education. That coupled with their moralistic visions of wokeness that they have been propagandized with means that they believe it to be cruel, racist, that high expectations are set for everyone.
You'd be best doing it independently with like minded people and outside the corrupt bureaucracy.
I'm hoping that you see hope in the process. Truth, Beauty, and Goodness must win but only manifests itself through people. Parents must see themselves as the first educators but they are fighting their own battle to emerge from the Prussian model. Mathew you have the gift of seeing the invisible and sharing it in a way that makes it visible to those that take the time to listen. It's your calling.
Why not the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum?
The psychopaths you mention are your cue to stay away from them. Your truth will succeed eventually where their lies will fail.
Transparency maun
It was heartening to learn recently the demons flee from the truth. It’s a great way to know which path to find even if it needs clearing.
Not too many people of your sound mind (evidence in the self financing via BTC) are around.
Lonely are the brave. Carry forth.
"Why not the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum?"
So far, I haven't met anyone who studied from anyone's homeschooling curriculum that did not seem years behind the students I worked with on their math education. I would wager on the weakest math student in any class I've held to score higher than the highest scoring student in the nation working with only the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum.
Curriculum is only one piece of the game. How the culture is run is the larger piece.
We are members of the Ron Paul homeschooling curriculum. I've enjoyed most his english classes, math and civics classes. But my kids would quit his math classes in a second if they had the opportunity to take classes with Mathew Crawford. Not a fan of Ron Paul's history.
I think the curriculum is just bad. Probably because the people who wrote it are not real mathematicians.
My hot take.
Many of them promote rote memorisation of formulas instead of learning the fundamentals, leaving students confused and stranded with no idea how to apply the concepts in novel ways.
This is especially true in math (they don't want us going deep). Ron Paul has some solid history curriculum
Okay. Ryan Dawson comes to mind or other expat kind of culture that could loosely come together. Or are you seeking the damaged bifurcated brains from mK that enickson and James delingpole were recently podcasting about?
Creating the culture you want to teach in will be awesome.
Loved your chat with Doc Malik. As a retired geek, it made me realize how poor technical and academic education has become since my time in the 70s and 80s. I fear that many institutional proponents will want to save their jobs in any Trump-driven education reform. Rebuilding an existing system usually fails badly, as seen in most industries. It needs to be dismantled, along with the existing staff, and started from scratch
Any government run initiative that tries to tackle foundational (and generational) long term issues will inevitably become corrupted. It's just a matter of time.
Any enduring solution needs to come from the bottom up, be autonomous and designed/implemented by the people for the people. (There are other necessary conditions for it to be enduring. These are just the initial necessary conditions).
I believe small businesses should spearhead educational initiatives and morph into educational institutions (of sorts). A business should be a "learning organization" that produces outstanding educational material for its employees, employees families (including and especially children), and for the community they belong to. (i.e. open source and transparent).
Starting new businesses with this mindset is a lot easier than transforming existing businesses. The part I haven't fully figured out yet is how to interview potential employees.
(One of the main aims of each business would be to educate and grow people "out of the business", so they can start their own autonomous successful business and repeat the pattern (if they are so inclined). A small business shouldn't have more 50 to 100 employees).
Mathew, I just skimmed your article and glanced at your hesitation but you are just what they are looking for, at least in the Vivek Elon world. Read el gato malo’s piece last week about the brilliant people that are being attracted to going to DC and making a difference. You can. I have been waiting for you to start into the school building again and my daughter in law is a brilliant teacher that is now homeschooling. I have encouraged her to watch you, my son does. They left Massachusetts in 2022 for Tennessee to get away from the Amherst, MA toxicity.
Give it a shot. You could meet some interesting people, make a difference and always run away if it was wrong.
Back when I was early 30’s and with a 1 year old the former governor of Vermont (Snelling) was running for US Senate against first term senator Patrick Leary. I followed politics and took a chance to work on the campaign as finance manager. We lost. Leahy was in office for decades. The former governor sailed his yacht, then ran again for governor and died in office. I took my shot with no money and a year old kid. It cost me, but I didn’t regret it.
I appreciate your optimism, but I think that you greatly overestimate the sincerity of this particular process.
I would love to create a micro school using your methods