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Visiting a high school my friend founded to be inquiry-driven project-based learning from the ground up moved me away from teaching in ways divorced from regula

by spodek 7y ago

Visiting a high school my friend founded to be inquiry-driven project-based learning from the ground up moved me away from teaching in ways divorced from regular life. From a systemic approach, it's hard not to look at the universities and professors creating the system that this article describes: assign homework irrelevant to their lives and they'll find irrelevant ways to do it. Since I've never written an analytical essay outside of school, I avoid assigning them in favor of projects connected to students' lives. Maybe that's why my students' homework assignments get them covered in the Washington Post, WSJ, Forbes, Inc, and lead to them speaking in TEDx and Harvard, and in Y Combinator, funded by Zuckerberg and Eric Schmidt.

jpm_sd 7y ago
Tell us more! What's the name of your school? Can I send my kids there?
- spodek 7y ago
  I teach at NYU. My courses are in book form too: https://www.amazon.com/Initiative-Proven-Method-Bring-Passions/dp/1733039902 https://www.amazon.com/Initiative-Proven-Method-Bring-Passio... https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/dp/0814437931 https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/... My friend's school that inspired me is Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. He's given TEDx talks and keynotes online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS2IPfWZQM4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS2IPfWZQM4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEMCyHYTyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEMCyHYTyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE-eJAye5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE-eJAye5Y
jseliger 7y ago
We really need to move towards vocational ed and apprenticeships: https://seliger.com/2017/06/16/rare-good-political-news-boosting-apprenticeships https://seliger.com/2017/06/16/rare-good-political-news-boos.... Large numbers of students in colleges shouldn't be there.
- 6thaccount2 7y ago
  I agree. One issue I find is that many students struggle with the remedial and 101 classes which I honestly think and decent freshman or sophomore in highschool should be able to do. The point is that highschool isn't very successful for many students.
- spamizbad 7y ago
  That’s true but I doubt the types dropping $ to have their papers professionally written are the types who would otherwise go and become plumbers or electricians. Who buys a paper? A lazy child of the ruling class.
  - goostavos 7y ago
    The ruling class? You vastly over estimate the price of getting homework done. I used to pay for some of my books each semester by just burning through all the low hanging "do my intro to CS homework" posts on job sites. $10-$20 a pop for a few minutes of effort.
    - leetcrew 7y ago
      $20 was actually a lot of money when I was a college student. that's 2-3 meals off campus or enough cheap booze for a small party. I was pretty lazy and I never even considered paying someone to do my homework.
TrackerFF 7y ago
Well, academically speaking, the reason students learn to write papers the way they do, is probably to prep them best for academia - not the professional world (though many jobs are not mutually exclusive from what you do in academia - i.e research)
cco 7y ago
You've never had to read and understand some data, analyze it, and then communicate your results via written word in your career? I'm totally willing to grant you that the majority of careers do not require this skill but most white collar work does. Agreed that essays are overused but I'm just surprised to hear you downplay them so much.
- zrobotics 7y ago
  The typical academic essay doesn't (IME) really prepare students that well. What I felt worked best was a CS professor I had whose courses were entirely project-based and 50% of the grade was based on a report of your work. It was much closer to the type of writing an engineer will need to do and it was one of the most helpful experiences I had in school. Learning how to write well is important, but I didn't feel that any of the lit classes I took helped greatly.
- nitwit005 7y ago
  The handful of times I've been asked to analyze something, the result has been a list or graph with some accompanying description. I had a coworker who had a reputation for long emails. It was clear, based on hallway comments, that no one was reading them. People don't appear to have much tolerance for essays unless there's good reason for it.
  - hugey010 7y ago
    Agreed. When I write an email, I usually address the topic generically, then list options or reasons or whatever, then give a takeaway or action item. Most people seem to only read the topic statement. Not sure if I have lazy coworkers or I'm not an effective emailer.
    - rahimnathwani 7y ago
      TO: hugey010@... SUBJECT: Put the action statement in the subject line, starting tomorrow Your colleagues read your emails in sequence. You care that they have read the action statement so they can follow up or disagree. Putting it first will get it read. Put the action statement in the subject line, starting tomorrow. You can also repeat it at the end. If you have a better suggestion, let me know today please.

by spodek 7y ago

jpm_sd 7y ago

Tell us more! What's the name of your school? Can I send my kids there?

spodek 7y ago
I teach at NYU. My courses are in book form too: https://www.amazon.com/Initiative-Proven-Method-Bring-Passions/dp/1733039902 https://www.amazon.com/Initiative-Proven-Method-Bring-Passio... https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/dp/0814437931 https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Step-Become-Person-Others/... My friend's school that inspired me is Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. He's given TEDx talks and keynotes online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS2IPfWZQM4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS2IPfWZQM4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEMCyHYTyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FEMCyHYTyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE-eJAye5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSE-eJAye5Y

jseliger 7y ago

We really need to move towards vocational ed and apprenticeships: https://seliger.com/2017/06/16/rare-good-political-news-boosting-apprenticeships https://seliger.com/2017/06/16/rare-good-political-news-boos.... Large numbers of students in colleges shouldn't be there.

6thaccount2 7y ago
I agree. One issue I find is that many students struggle with the remedial and 101 classes which I honestly think and decent freshman or sophomore in highschool should be able to do. The point is that highschool isn't very successful for many students.
spamizbad 7y ago
That’s true but I doubt the types dropping $ to have their papers professionally written are the types who would otherwise go and become plumbers or electricians. Who buys a paper? A lazy child of the ruling class.
- goostavos 7y ago
  The ruling class? You vastly over estimate the price of getting homework done. I used to pay for some of my books each semester by just burning through all the low hanging "do my intro to CS homework" posts on job sites. $10-$20 a pop for a few minutes of effort.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    $20 was actually a lot of money when I was a college student. that's 2-3 meals off campus or enough cheap booze for a small party. I was pretty lazy and I never even considered paying someone to do my homework.

TrackerFF 7y ago

Well, academically speaking, the reason students learn to write papers the way they do, is probably to prep them best for academia - not the professional world (though many jobs are not mutually exclusive from what you do in academia - i.e research)

cco 7y ago

You've never had to read and understand some data, analyze it, and then communicate your results via written word in your career? I'm totally willing to grant you that the majority of careers do not require this skill but most white collar work does. Agreed that essays are overused but I'm just surprised to hear you downplay them so much.

zrobotics 7y ago
The typical academic essay doesn't (IME) really prepare students that well. What I felt worked best was a CS professor I had whose courses were entirely project-based and 50% of the grade was based on a report of your work. It was much closer to the type of writing an engineer will need to do and it was one of the most helpful experiences I had in school. Learning how to write well is important, but I didn't feel that any of the lit classes I took helped greatly.
nitwit005 7y ago
The handful of times I've been asked to analyze something, the result has been a list or graph with some accompanying description. I had a coworker who had a reputation for long emails. It was clear, based on hallway comments, that no one was reading them. People don't appear to have much tolerance for essays unless there's good reason for it.
- hugey010 7y ago
  Agreed. When I write an email, I usually address the topic generically, then list options or reasons or whatever, then give a takeaway or action item. Most people seem to only read the topic statement. Not sure if I have lazy coworkers or I'm not an effective emailer.
  - rahimnathwani 7y ago
    TO: hugey010@... SUBJECT: Put the action statement in the subject line, starting tomorrow Your colleagues read your emails in sequence. You care that they have read the action statement so they can follow up or disagree. Putting it first will get it read. Put the action statement in the subject line, starting tomorrow. You can also repeat it at the end. If you have a better suggestion, let me know today please.