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When I was 8 I'd have only read books on dinosaurs, baseball, and the Legend of Zelda. It took me until halfway or more through college to realize I really like

When I was 8 I'd have only read books on dinosaurs, baseball, and the Legend of Zelda. It took me until halfway or more through college to realize I really liked programming, way more than I did my other majors I'd invested considerable time and money in (medicine, politics). Kids, especially 8-year-olds, need a lot of guidance and need to learn the fundamentals. I'm very glad my parents and teachers worked hard to make me learn things I had no intention of learning, like math.

adamnemecek 9y ago
Perfect! Now design the math curriculum so that it steers you towards game development (this would be individual) and you have a good educational system.
- yoz-y 9y ago
  How would you determine which kid to steer towards what? Nobody will like all of the fundamentals but that is just how things are. For me the biggest determinant factor for whether I liked a subject or not was the quality of the teacher. However "make teachers better at teaching" is not really a scalable solution.
  - adamnemecek 9y ago
    They pick themselves? You don’t really need teachers.
    - yoz-y 9y ago
      I believe that much of the unemployment problem for people with higher education diplomas is because people have to choose their career around 14-18 years old and fail to do the right choice. I do not think that pushing this to an earlier age is a good idea. I have also worked with people who came from the modern "sans-teachers" schools. They were terrible. My impression is that such education reinforces pre-concieved notions of the students, and if they are bad they will just turn worse.
      - adamnemecek 9y ago
        > I believe that much of the unemployment problem for people with higher education diplomas is because people have to choose their career around 14-18 years old and fail to do the right choice. ...and also the fact that school is very inefficient. Like out of each 45 minute block, I would say that only like maybe 20 minutes is spent productively. Like I think that during one school day, you waste over 50% of the time. > I have also worked with people who came from the modern "sans-teachers" schools. They were terrible. The same can be said about people who came from with-teachers school.
- bpicolo 9y ago
  > design the math curriculum so that it steers you towards game development And suddenly 95% of 5th graders are doing math curriculums with a specific focus on game development. Games and gaming are tremendously appealing to young kids over nearly everything else.
  - adamnemecek 9y ago
    No, design the curriculum so that it's pick your adventure.

adamnemecek 9y ago

Perfect! Now design the math curriculum so that it steers you towards game development (this would be individual) and you have a good educational system.

yoz-y 9y ago
How would you determine which kid to steer towards what? Nobody will like all of the fundamentals but that is just how things are. For me the biggest determinant factor for whether I liked a subject or not was the quality of the teacher. However "make teachers better at teaching" is not really a scalable solution.
- adamnemecek 9y ago
  They pick themselves? You don’t really need teachers.
  - yoz-y 9y ago
    I believe that much of the unemployment problem for people with higher education diplomas is because people have to choose their career around 14-18 years old and fail to do the right choice. I do not think that pushing this to an earlier age is a good idea. I have also worked with people who came from the modern "sans-teachers" schools. They were terrible. My impression is that such education reinforces pre-concieved notions of the students, and if they are bad they will just turn worse.
    - adamnemecek 9y ago
      > I believe that much of the unemployment problem for people with higher education diplomas is because people have to choose their career around 14-18 years old and fail to do the right choice. ...and also the fact that school is very inefficient. Like out of each 45 minute block, I would say that only like maybe 20 minutes is spent productively. Like I think that during one school day, you waste over 50% of the time. > I have also worked with people who came from the modern "sans-teachers" schools. They were terrible. The same can be said about people who came from with-teachers school.
bpicolo 9y ago
> design the math curriculum so that it steers you towards game development And suddenly 95% of 5th graders are doing math curriculums with a specific focus on game development. Games and gaming are tremendously appealing to young kids over nearly everything else.
- adamnemecek 9y ago
  No, design the curriculum so that it's pick your adventure.