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I used to teach English as a foreign language for a little while. My students were kids 10-13 years old. The most difficult task was to teach them things they w
by smnrchrds 13y ago
I used to teach English as a foreign language for a little while. My students were kids 10-13 years old. The most difficult task was to teach them things they were previously taught incorrectly. For example, I was struggling the whole semester to convince them "pizza" is pronounced "peetsə" although there is no visible "t" in it. The reason: Their last teacher told them it was pronounced "peeza". No matter how much I tried, they always went back to their pronunciation and thought I was an idiot.
As people working in tech, we are familiar with the concept of unlearning. Sometimes to make things right, we have to unlearn what we have learned and start from scratch. Unlearning is something that comes with experience. It's very hard for children to unlearn. You have to be careful what you say to them, because they're going to believe it for a long time.
I think what the OP is worried about is if these videos are someone's first introduction to math, they will struggle in this subject for foreseeable future.
- runarberg 13y ago> The most difficult task was to teach them things they were previously taught incorrectly. That is an easy thing to fix. If they take everything the teacher tells them at face value, they are bound to to repeat silly errors (and worse, biases,) in the teachers knowledge. If you teach them that the teacher might err (including you), then it is so much easier for you to demonstrate how they know wrong. Even better, if you fail at something while teaching (everybody do), they will be more likely to correct you, and you will learn something from them.