Curiosity is a hard thing to squash, but the traditional model of education manages pretty well: Listen to lectures, take notes, feed back what you learned, and

Curiosity is a hard thing to squash, but the traditional model of education manages pretty well: Listen to lectures, take notes, feed back what you learned, and then forget it all. You’re not allowed to go beyond the curriculum. Khan Academy is all about giving more breathing room. You want to go deep? Go deep. I had this to some degree at the public school I went to in Louisiana, where there were gifted programs. Every day, starting in second grade, they took me out of class for an hour, and I would go to another room, with a mixed age group. The first time I went, I thought it was the biggest racket. I walked up to Miss Rouselle’s desk, and she asked, “What do you like to do?” I was like, I’m seven years old—shouldn’t you be telling me what to do? But I said, “I like to draw. I like puzzles.” She said, “OK, have you used oil paints? Have you done Mind Benders?” Soon I looked forward to that hour more than I did to spending the night at my friend’s house. And I learned more that applies to what I do today than in the five other hours of the day combined. In NYC, they start prepping kids for admissions testing before they are 3. By pre-K they are teaching kids to sit still for written exams. "Experts" discourage kids from learning multiple languages since some K admissions exams test vocabulary. "Experts" discourage kids from prematurely learning to read because most K admissions exams only test aural reasoning. Salman's points about the system destroying curiosity is 100% absolutely true. I don't have a good solution other than to find a way to improve all the schools in the system. Nobody has shown how to do this yet.