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I know this because my kids watch horrible histories. My kids know more about history than I learnt at school by watching horrible histories. Primary school h

I know this because my kids watch horrible histories. My kids know more about history than I learnt at school by watching horrible histories. Primary school history lessons should watch all the horrible histories, they really are great at teaching kids.

seibelj 6y ago
I believe school should mostly be help with what is currently deemed “homework” and homework should consist of watching lectures, interesting videos, etc. from the incredible plethora of existing content that is superb. No individual teacher could ever create lessons as good as those (plus it’s exhausting). Teaching is backwards and hasn’t evolved in 100 years!
- eloff 6y ago
  Yes, the educational system is about two standard deviations worse than a private tutor. There's a name for this effect, but I don't remember it. As someone who was homeschooled, I'll do that for my children as well, and I hope I will be able to afford a tutor to assist with that. I've had no difficulty in life competing with people who went through the public school system, and I want my kids to have the same advantage. And that's before thinking about the people whose lives were ruined by the influences of their peers, by the bullying, the drugs, or the teen pregnancy. Some of those people who went to my school, before I switched to homeschooling, are no longer among the living.
  - jaynetics 6y ago
    It seems your school really sucked, and not just with regards to learning as most schools seem to do. For many people, though, school is also a source of lifelong friendships, romance, and other good things.
    - seibelj 6y ago
      True - and I think schools can enable this and teach knowledge in vastly superior ways.
    - dijit 6y ago
      I’m sure my experience with school is not unique. School was a prison, quite literally a mandatory daycare service which as a side project may have taught some kids. But really, I’m 30 now. I look back in awe that we subject our kids to this. The friendships you forge would happen without being in prison.
      - andai 6y ago
        I used to compare school to daycare, until I realized that is too generous. At daycare they let you do whatever you want, play, explore, socialize, read. The toilets are available at all times. School was quite a step down from daycare.
    - eloff 6y ago
      University was more like that. School was a prison.
  - sterlind 6y ago
    I didn't get the best education in public school - though I made up for it in college - but I did grow up with friends in vastly-different socioeconomic status than my own. There's a tragedy of the commons here: parents who can afford private schools and tutors for their kids set them up for more success, but it also saps funding for public schools and families that can't afford that. (Public education would be better funded and higher quality if rich families had a reason to care.) Basically, white flight, though more tilted towards class now than race. I want to send my kids to public school, but I know my individual actions wouldn't do much to fix the inequality.
    - golergka 6y ago
      You're exercising your free choice between well-being of your own children and the community at large — and people who choose private tutors make their choice as well. It's great that people have that choice of how to use the money they earned.
      - shawnz 6y ago
        What's great about it? Is it great because it makes the world a better place? Seems like the opposite might be true if capitalizing on the choice to use private education creates a less educated population in general
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    > "There's a name for this effect, but I don't remember it." It's Bloom's 2-sigma problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem > "Bloom concluded that one-to-one tutoring is "too costly for most societies to bear on a large scale", Bloom conjectured that a combination of two or three altered variables may result in a similar performance improvement."; that was in 1984. My suggestion for this is join a small but active Discord/Slack/IRC group, ask many questions and strive to answer any you can. I wonder if that has been studied, it's not structured, directed, one-to-one tutoring but many moments of one-to-one and many-to-one explaining and helping do happen within it.
    - eloff 6y ago
      Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of. Your suggestion was part of the process through which I taught myself computer programming. I think it has merit.
- lbotos 6y ago
  This model is known as "flipped classroom" where students self-study video lectures on topics outside of the class, and during class time, the teacher fills in specific knowledge gaps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom I agree, it's very much the future (if we ever get there).
  - watwut 6y ago
    Our teachers tended to try that. Result - nobody read that except most disciplined individuals who skimmed the texts. I think the results with videos would be the same. The experiment was reproduced the same way in elementary school, high school and college. Readings are skipped unless you have to give the teacher something. But most importantly, it is absurd to make this into a "system". The teachers can do mix of activities in school and homework can be mix of activities. There is zero reason to decide for one place for each activity, put name on it and then demand compliance. Teachers help is necessary at times, then again students doing individual work and problem solving with no help is important in reasonable doses too.
aeontech 6y ago
Thanks for the recommendation, this seems awesome :)
Smaug123 6y ago
More generally, the "Horrible Science" and "Horrible Histories" (and the first "Murderous Maths" book, though I never read the others) books taught me much more than I ever learned in primary school and the first several years of secondary school.

seibelj 6y ago

I believe school should mostly be help with what is currently deemed “homework” and homework should consist of watching lectures, interesting videos, etc. from the incredible plethora of existing content that is superb. No individual teacher could ever create lessons as good as those (plus it’s exhausting). Teaching is backwards and hasn’t evolved in 100 years!

eloff 6y ago
Yes, the educational system is about two standard deviations worse than a private tutor. There's a name for this effect, but I don't remember it. As someone who was homeschooled, I'll do that for my children as well, and I hope I will be able to afford a tutor to assist with that. I've had no difficulty in life competing with people who went through the public school system, and I want my kids to have the same advantage. And that's before thinking about the people whose lives were ruined by the influences of their peers, by the bullying, the drugs, or the teen pregnancy. Some of those people who went to my school, before I switched to homeschooling, are no longer among the living.
- jaynetics 6y ago
  It seems your school really sucked, and not just with regards to learning as most schools seem to do. For many people, though, school is also a source of lifelong friendships, romance, and other good things.
  - seibelj 6y ago
    True - and I think schools can enable this and teach knowledge in vastly superior ways.
  - dijit 6y ago
    I’m sure my experience with school is not unique. School was a prison, quite literally a mandatory daycare service which as a side project may have taught some kids. But really, I’m 30 now. I look back in awe that we subject our kids to this. The friendships you forge would happen without being in prison.
    - andai 6y ago
      I used to compare school to daycare, until I realized that is too generous. At daycare they let you do whatever you want, play, explore, socialize, read. The toilets are available at all times. School was quite a step down from daycare.
  - eloff 6y ago
    University was more like that. School was a prison.
- sterlind 6y ago
  I didn't get the best education in public school - though I made up for it in college - but I did grow up with friends in vastly-different socioeconomic status than my own. There's a tragedy of the commons here: parents who can afford private schools and tutors for their kids set them up for more success, but it also saps funding for public schools and families that can't afford that. (Public education would be better funded and higher quality if rich families had a reason to care.) Basically, white flight, though more tilted towards class now than race. I want to send my kids to public school, but I know my individual actions wouldn't do much to fix the inequality.
  - golergka 6y ago
    You're exercising your free choice between well-being of your own children and the community at large — and people who choose private tutors make their choice as well. It's great that people have that choice of how to use the money they earned.
    - shawnz 6y ago
      What's great about it? Is it great because it makes the world a better place? Seems like the opposite might be true if capitalizing on the choice to use private education creates a less educated population in general
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  > "There's a name for this effect, but I don't remember it." It's Bloom's 2-sigma problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_2_sigma_problem > "Bloom concluded that one-to-one tutoring is "too costly for most societies to bear on a large scale", Bloom conjectured that a combination of two or three altered variables may result in a similar performance improvement."; that was in 1984. My suggestion for this is join a small but active Discord/Slack/IRC group, ask many questions and strive to answer any you can. I wonder if that has been studied, it's not structured, directed, one-to-one tutoring but many moments of one-to-one and many-to-one explaining and helping do happen within it.
  - eloff 6y ago
    Thanks, that's the one I was thinking of. Your suggestion was part of the process through which I taught myself computer programming. I think it has merit.
lbotos 6y ago
This model is known as "flipped classroom" where students self-study video lectures on topics outside of the class, and during class time, the teacher fills in specific knowledge gaps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom I agree, it's very much the future (if we ever get there).
- watwut 6y ago
  Our teachers tended to try that. Result - nobody read that except most disciplined individuals who skimmed the texts. I think the results with videos would be the same. The experiment was reproduced the same way in elementary school, high school and college. Readings are skipped unless you have to give the teacher something. But most importantly, it is absurd to make this into a "system". The teachers can do mix of activities in school and homework can be mix of activities. There is zero reason to decide for one place for each activity, put name on it and then demand compliance. Teachers help is necessary at times, then again students doing individual work and problem solving with no help is important in reasonable doses too.

aeontech 6y ago

Thanks for the recommendation, this seems awesome :)

Smaug123 6y ago

More generally, the "Horrible Science" and "Horrible Histories" (and the first "Murderous Maths" book, though I never read the others) books taught me much more than I ever learned in primary school and the first several years of secondary school.