4 ms·

Have you looked into Montessori schooling? It seems to address this very topic very well, albeit being so alternative a school gives some jitters.

socialdemocrat 7y ago
Absolutely considered it. It was a kind of school type I used to mock when I was younger. I viewed it as a stupid hippie school. Only after having kids did I realize how prejudice and narrow minded I had been. I am very focused on science and mathematics myself. I view those as some of the most important subjects. That give me some reluctance towards Montessori as they seem very focused on the arts. I like a lot of the philosophy of Montessori, but I supposed I would want more play centered around developing logical and scientific thinking. But I say this as someone who knows minimal about Montessori. Here are some examples of what I would have liked to see more of: We play a bunch of board games at home, and I have seen the kids get to practice a lot of math playing these games. Just exchanging money and adding dice numbers practice a lot of arithmetic. You can see they enjoy this much more than doing exactly the same calculations on paper without any context. I think a lot of early year education in e.g. mathematics could utilize board games more actively.
- em-bee 7y ago
  or roleplaying games like dungeons and dragons. because of its theme it is pushed into a corner as nerd culture, but if you look at it from another perspective it can also be summed up as improvisation and math. dungeons or monsters are not actually required.
em-bee 7y ago
does montessori really come across like that? i find that quite ironic, because from all the alternative systems i have seen, montessori seems to be the most efficient and scaleable. whereas most improvements to schools call for less students per teacher, montessori works well with traditional class sizes because the students learn to be independent and need less teacher attention. in other words, if there is one system that actually has the potential to improve schooling without requiring more teachers, then it is montessori.

socialdemocrat 7y ago

Absolutely considered it. It was a kind of school type I used to mock when I was younger. I viewed it as a stupid hippie school. Only after having kids did I realize how prejudice and narrow minded I had been. I am very focused on science and mathematics myself. I view those as some of the most important subjects. That give me some reluctance towards Montessori as they seem very focused on the arts. I like a lot of the philosophy of Montessori, but I supposed I would want more play centered around developing logical and scientific thinking. But I say this as someone who knows minimal about Montessori. Here are some examples of what I would have liked to see more of: We play a bunch of board games at home, and I have seen the kids get to practice a lot of math playing these games. Just exchanging money and adding dice numbers practice a lot of arithmetic. You can see they enjoy this much more than doing exactly the same calculations on paper without any context. I think a lot of early year education in e.g. mathematics could utilize board games more actively.

em-bee 7y ago
or roleplaying games like dungeons and dragons. because of its theme it is pushed into a corner as nerd culture, but if you look at it from another perspective it can also be summed up as improvisation and math. dungeons or monsters are not actually required.

em-bee 7y ago

does montessori really come across like that? i find that quite ironic, because from all the alternative systems i have seen, montessori seems to be the most efficient and scaleable. whereas most improvements to schools call for less students per teacher, montessori works well with traditional class sizes because the students learn to be independent and need less teacher attention. in other words, if there is one system that actually has the potential to improve schooling without requiring more teachers, then it is montessori.