Category: Education
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The “times-are-changing, specific-knowledge-is-unnecessary” canard
I don’t know how many times I have read, “The world, and research findings, are changing so fast that it is pointless to insist on learning particular bits of knowledge. Much of it will be outdated soon. So the only really important thing to teach children is how to think.” This is dangerous nonsense. It…
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Unobvious concepts that are important, but rarely taught
To understand history, geography, fiction, and a whole lot else besides, it is fairly important that children be taught in considerable depth certain practical yet universal concepts about history that, I think, are rarely explained in much very depth: Gathering (as in “hunting and gathering”) Animal skins (and tanning) Nomadic life Shepherding, spinning, weaving, dyeing…
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My “for kids” videos
Here are some of my videos for little kids. Some of them, like “Counting to 100” and “The Moon for Kids,” are getting pretty popular on YouTube. You can also find these (accessible in schools) on WatchKnowLearn, of course! I’ve uploaded some new ones in recent weeks (they are at the bottom of this list).…
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Response to David Wiley on an education “badge” system
Here is my response to David Wiley’s very interesting blog post about an educational badge system, similar to the Mozilla Open Badges program. David, I didn’t mean to be unpleasant in my Twitter responses to you. I’m still grateful to you for agreeing to be a WatchKnow (now WatchKnowLearn, and now in the able hands…
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What is the best way to teach geography?
I’m wondering: what is the best way to teach geography? I’ve started a system with H. (age 5) which seems to be working reasonably well, but I wonder if, perhaps, we should be doing some other things. Also, there are aspects of my current plan that make me wonder if I’m proposing to start something…
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I gih dah bah! (update about the baby’s “education”)
It’s been a while since I reported about Baby E., especially in any detail. So here’s maybe my first detailed report (he’s now 11 months) about what we’re doing with him and what’s going on with him. I guess the relevant topics are: apps; YBCR and associated flashcards; other screen-based reading programs; and books. But first, a…
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Our “curriculum”: update about the boys (August 2011)
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See a ReadingBear demo and volunteer to help finish the job!
Regular readers of this blog know that I’ve been spent most of this year developing a free reading tutorial. We were calling it WatchKnow Reader, but now it’s called Reading Bear. I need you to help to finish it (see below to volunteer!). First let me show you a demo. It’s unfinished and undesigned, but…
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Reply to Nathan Jurgenson on anti-intellectualism
Thanks to Nathan Jurgenson for a thoughtful critique of “Is there a new geek anti-intellectualism?” I wish I had more time to respond, especially since it is so earnestly intellectual itself. The following will have to do. Jurgenson provides a definition (which he says is based on Hofstadter’s discussion in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life), which combines anti-expertism,…
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Should we teach math in elementary school?
From the anti-intellectualism department, arguably: An emeritus psych professor, Peter Gray, has made the argument in Psychology Today that we should not teach math in elementary school (K-6). (Hat tip, BrillKids Forum.) Well, I flatter Prof. Gray in calling it an “argument.” Maybe he has an argument elsewhere, but there isn’t much of one in…