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From the article... "Yes, he even got in trouble in his science class for reading articles on carbon nanotubes instead of doing his classwork." This just irks

From the article... "Yes, he even got in trouble in his science class for reading articles on carbon nanotubes instead of doing his classwork." This just irks me about our (U.S.) education system. I understand doing classwork is important. Yet here you have a young student taking interest in science and engineering and gets in trouble for it? That doesn't make sense to me at all. The work he's doing should be more than enough credit for his classwork. Take him aside from the class and foster this work and passion. He'll learn more science from this one project than doing 10x the amount of classwork in any syllabus. I see no reason why his science grade could be reflected on this work.

wisty 14y ago
Education is a competitive sport. You don't let Olympic sprinters waste time playing basketball, or they won't win any medals. If kids waste time learning about stuff that's not on the exam, they won't get the marks they deserve, and some other kid will get their place in university.
- cududa 14y ago
  Your metaphor is flawed. By your metaphor this kid is an olympic basketball player being forced to practice sprinting. Who cares what's on the exam? Memorizing facts for high school tests isn't any real indicator of knowledge of intelligence. That is precisely what's wrong with education though. When I was in High School I got in trouble for designing software and writhing code on paper. Then I got hired by Microsoft when I was 18, and have been doing pretty well for myself since.
  - jeremyarussell 14y ago
    I got in trouble all the time for tinkering with the school computers and reading more then doing my homework. (I still aced tests.) I'm making decent money now programming and computer fixing for a 200+ employee ophthalmology (eye doctors) office.
rogerbinns 14y ago
Most education systems around the world are broken. They are still modelled on production systems from the industrial revolution. Here is a wonderful 11 minute talk by Ken Robinson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
polymatter 14y ago
I expect the biggest problem is that giving teachers flexibility to give class credit for random projects outside the syllabus would quickly become the much easier route to passing the class. The more restrictions you put on the project, the more you take away from the students interest ("sorry, carbon nanotubes is not one of the allowable project materials") and the more likely you'll need to demand unreasonable beaucracy ("the published paper doesn't include the teachers name as lead author so it doesn't count. write it up again without plagerising"). Plus there are some benefits of a syllabus, such as making sure that fundamental knowledge is taught. If you (as a student) missed algebra because you were doing your investigation into fractals, you're going to find calculus much more difficult than you would otherwise.

wisty 14y ago

Education is a competitive sport. You don't let Olympic sprinters waste time playing basketball, or they won't win any medals. If kids waste time learning about stuff that's not on the exam, they won't get the marks they deserve, and some other kid will get their place in university.

cududa 14y ago
Your metaphor is flawed. By your metaphor this kid is an olympic basketball player being forced to practice sprinting. Who cares what's on the exam? Memorizing facts for high school tests isn't any real indicator of knowledge of intelligence. That is precisely what's wrong with education though. When I was in High School I got in trouble for designing software and writhing code on paper. Then I got hired by Microsoft when I was 18, and have been doing pretty well for myself since.
- jeremyarussell 14y ago
  I got in trouble all the time for tinkering with the school computers and reading more then doing my homework. (I still aced tests.) I'm making decent money now programming and computer fixing for a 200+ employee ophthalmology (eye doctors) office.

rogerbinns 14y ago

Most education systems around the world are broken. They are still modelled on production systems from the industrial revolution. Here is a wonderful 11 minute talk by Ken Robinson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

polymatter 14y ago

I expect the biggest problem is that giving teachers flexibility to give class credit for random projects outside the syllabus would quickly become the much easier route to passing the class. The more restrictions you put on the project, the more you take away from the students interest ("sorry, carbon nanotubes is not one of the allowable project materials") and the more likely you'll need to demand unreasonable beaucracy ("the published paper doesn't include the teachers name as lead author so it doesn't count. write it up again without plagerising"). Plus there are some benefits of a syllabus, such as making sure that fundamental knowledge is taught. If you (as a student) missed algebra because you were doing your investigation into fractals, you're going to find calculus much more difficult than you would otherwise.