Copasetic Flow

A few days ago, 6 y.o. No. Two reminded me that to assume I knowhow someone listens, much less how they learn is rather superemrly arrogoant of me.  Two, of course, didn’t remind me by telling mei. He’d never do anything so crass—he’s far too decent of a person for that. He reminded me by showing me.  Two and I attended an AlienCon panel featuring Joel and Paul Hynek. If you’re not a huge AlienCon fan, the Hyneks’ dad, Dr. Allen Hynek , was the a scientific consultant for three the Air Force's UFO investigations, Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book.  A new TV series dramatizes their family’s life along with some of the UFO cases their dad investigated. Paul Hynek serves as a technical advisor for the show while his brother Joel, is actually portrayed on the show. Joel has other props in show business as well: he won an Academy Award for Visual Effects. The brothers held my rapt atention with their stories, accompanied by family photos displayed o...

Do kids need to learn math?  When do they need to learn to read?  Are history, art, and civics still important?  Do kids still need well-rounded educations (whatever that means)?  A recent conversation  on edu twitter  revolved around an article printed in the Atlantic  quoting the results of a research study: the vast majority of people use little math beyond fractions in their daily lives.  As a white collar worker in engineering who rarely uses math beyond fractions I’m inclined to believe it. Here’s the thing though, does any of this really matter?  What if instead of deciding what was important to learn, spending countless hours debating what we should force other people to learn; what if we just let those people learn what they were interested in?  And of course, the people of which I speak are kids because really, how many of us would deign to think it was OK to tell anyone that wasn’t a kid what they had to learn? Here’s ...

The book is  well organized, well researched, and a quick read... if you already believe in the argument: At least 30% of the value of school (if not far more) is in signalling that you are intelligent, can work hard, and can conform. If you too have already arrived at that conclusion as many unschooling parents have, this book holds two values.  One, to act as a balm for your battered alternative education soul.  Two, to provide statistical research to argue your alternative education views. Sadly, the chances of the book spurring real change in our world, which I strongly believe it should are small.  We would all benefit greatly from changing education to be less about signalling.  However, trusting our fellow citizens to go along rather than take the chance to signal louder is a hard risk to take.  I'll point out one of my own college classes as an anecdotal example.  One professor offered a linear curve which when extended to a highest gr...