Education: Thinking out of the Box

One of my favorite topics is education. I'm not a big fan of how children are currently taught, and here's one example of how things could be improved. Right now, schools tend to teach subjects in a "stove pipe" manner; for example, math, physics, chemistry and biology are all taught relatively independently of each other. Wouldn't it be a lot more fun, and more real-world, to replace all these topics with a single one called something like "how things work"? The idea of this topic would be to encourage children to understand how things work, from the very simple (like a catapult or a bouncing ball) to the very complex (like a mouse or a computer). Children would be shown how to open things up, come up with experiments to examine aspects of a thing, and also how to build things of their own. The act of understanding or building any particular thing would typically involve a combination of math, physics, biology, and chemistry, combined with a heathly dose of internet research. Gosh, I would have *loved* to learn that way. Wouldn't you?

Comments

[Mark Piller]

http://www.howstuffworks.com took the approach somewhat similar to what you describe. Check out the site, there are some very interesting topics described in plain English.

[Mark]

Graham,

You're not alone in not being a fan of how children are currently taught. My family has been using home-based education and following a more classical approach. Susan Wise Bauer's book "The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home" has been helpful to us. Wise also has a newer book for adults seeking to obtain the classical education they missed out on as children.

Mark

[Chris Raber]

One of my favorite thinkers on education is Mortimer Adler. Adler was dubbed the "Philosopher for the Everyman" for his ability to bring complex philisophical thought to the laymen.

Here is a nice treatise on his view of education and a prescription for a cure: http://www.realuofc.org/libed/adler/frontier.html

Best,

-Chris.

[James Governor]

interesting- was reading about Alan Kay - one of the Parc stalwarts - now at hp research

he is working on something called squeak - an aid for teaching children. see squeakland.org

it would seem to converge two of your current interests rather elegantly