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If I were a billionaire my kids wouldn't go to school. I'd fly in experts and pay them top dollar. Want to learn about the web today? Here's Tim Berners-Lee to

by elchief 10y ago

If I were a billionaire my kids wouldn't go to school. I'd fly in experts and pay them top dollar. Want to learn about the web today? Here's Tim Berners-Lee to show you. I guess I'd make them do team sports so they didn't end up weird though...

dragonwriter 10y ago
> I guess I'd make them do team sports so they didn't end up weird though... People are quite capable of ending up weird having done team sports while growing up.
- pc86 10y ago
  His (pretty clear) point was that socialization is important, and if you spend your formative years in a room interacting only with your family or a tutor you're not going to be a well-functioning adult.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    And my (I thought pretty clear) point was that "team sports", especially as the primary peer-interaction socialization venue, are far from a panacea for that problem.
    - TillE 10y ago
      Yes, team sports is a bit of a weird environment, and not just in America. Socialization is also possible while participating in 1v1 sports, or even something like chess club.
rayiner 10y ago
My kid is only 3, and my dissatisfaction with public school is already starting. We sent her to a Fairfax County (one of the top public school districts in the country), VA preschool for a few months while we lived with my parents while looking for a new place in D.C. They gave her a ton of worksheets and reading exercises. Flashbacks to my horrendous experience with FCPS. She goes to a Montessori preschool now, where they do about an hour and a half of real work a day and spend the rest of the day on the playground.
- jdmichal 10y ago
  The history of kindergarten is interesting here, and I find that the Montessori method falls well in line. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=kindergarten http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&searc... "Kindergarten means a garden of children, and Froebel, the inventor of it, or rather, as he would prefer to express it, the discoverer of the method of Nature, meant to symbolize by the name the spirit and plan of treatment. How does the gardener treat his plants? He studies their individual natures, and puts them into such circumstances of soil and atmosphere as enable them to grow, flower, and bring forth fruit,-- also to renew their manifestation year after year." [Mann, Horace, and Elizabeth P. Peabody, "Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide," Boston, 1863]
- douche 10y ago
  The most advanced thing I learned in kindergarten was what the letters were and how to print them. We also only went for half the day, and spent most of the day playing with blocks and doing show-and-tell. I don't think it hurt any... well, except for my parent's pocketbook, since they still had to pay for full childcare.
DanBC 10y ago
Those experts are not experts in educating children.

by elchief 10y ago

dragonwriter 10y ago

> I guess I'd make them do team sports so they didn't end up weird though... People are quite capable of ending up weird having done team sports while growing up.

pc86 10y ago
His (pretty clear) point was that socialization is important, and if you spend your formative years in a room interacting only with your family or a tutor you're not going to be a well-functioning adult.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  And my (I thought pretty clear) point was that "team sports", especially as the primary peer-interaction socialization venue, are far from a panacea for that problem.
  - TillE 10y ago
    Yes, team sports is a bit of a weird environment, and not just in America. Socialization is also possible while participating in 1v1 sports, or even something like chess club.

rayiner 10y ago

My kid is only 3, and my dissatisfaction with public school is already starting. We sent her to a Fairfax County (one of the top public school districts in the country), VA preschool for a few months while we lived with my parents while looking for a new place in D.C. They gave her a ton of worksheets and reading exercises. Flashbacks to my horrendous experience with FCPS. She goes to a Montessori preschool now, where they do about an hour and a half of real work a day and spend the rest of the day on the playground.

jdmichal 10y ago
The history of kindergarten is interesting here, and I find that the Montessori method falls well in line. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=kindergarten http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&searc... "Kindergarten means a garden of children, and Froebel, the inventor of it, or rather, as he would prefer to express it, the discoverer of the method of Nature, meant to symbolize by the name the spirit and plan of treatment. How does the gardener treat his plants? He studies their individual natures, and puts them into such circumstances of soil and atmosphere as enable them to grow, flower, and bring forth fruit,-- also to renew their manifestation year after year." [Mann, Horace, and Elizabeth P. Peabody, "Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide," Boston, 1863]
douche 10y ago
The most advanced thing I learned in kindergarten was what the letters were and how to print them. We also only went for half the day, and spent most of the day playing with blocks and doing show-and-tell. I don't think it hurt any... well, except for my parent's pocketbook, since they still had to pay for full childcare.

DanBC 10y ago

Those experts are not experts in educating children.