Ask HN: What does the best possible education look like?

to instead teach a single student directly, without any time or resource limits. What would the ideal course of study look like then?

In particular, I'm interested in time allocation

When I homeschooled years ago, I read an article that indicated that a survey done by a parent of a typical school day at public school found that only one to two hours of the day were spent actually learning/studying. The rest was spent on roll call, lunch, recess, changing class rooms, etc.

At the same time, the state of California had several ways you could legally homeschool your children. One of those was "hire a tutor for three hours per say." Not eight. Just three.

Having homeschooled my sons for years, I can tell you that more than three hours a day of one-on-one instruction is not sustainable. It's too intense. It's too exhausting.

Eight hours a day of school only makes sense when you are splitting the time of the teacher between twenty or more students.

To what extent should the education be directed by the teacher, and to what extent by the student?

Homeschoolers often advocate for pursuing "child led learning." It generally works best to let the interests of the child direct things, if you really want to optimize for them soaking things up.

Though do be aware that you may need to place some limits and insist they learn certain things they don't really want to learn, especially if they have known disabilities. But it still is helpful to give them latitude, where possible, on how they learn those things.

Forced learning tends to not go over well.

Thank you. Homeschooling could be a very interesting angle for me to look into. Could you perhaps point me towards any studies about this? Preferably quantitative?

My sons are in their thirties. I am very not up on this.

When I was doing this around twenty years ago, Tagmax was a really good homeschooling list. You can sign up here and ask if they know of studies or articles: http://tagfam.org/

You might also want to look at the works of the guy known on HN as tokenadult: https://learninfreedom.org/

Edit: There's also this as a potential resource: https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/

What do you think about this infographic: https://ivypanda.com/blog/homeschooling-101/? Saw some interesting thoughts about homeschool there, but I need an opinion from someone with the experience.

P.S. Deciding if I want my child to be homeschooled given the current situation with the pandemic.

Socialization is an oft-cited "problem" for homeschoolers. I found my sons did better socially when not having to deal all day with an actively hostile environment. They had more friends, were more able to connect to people in a positive fashion, etc.

Homeschooling doesn't have to be expensive. You can go to the library and check out materials for free, shop second-hand book stores and buy materials from the bargain bin. I got a lot of math books for as little as a dollar because most people don't read math books for fun, so they often ended up in the bargain bin at regular bookstores.

You can join email lists and the like to help you figure everything out.

For my family, homeschooling was all upside. I had more time as a homeschooling parent to do other things than I did as a public school parent.

As a public school parent, I had to take my kids to school and pick them up. I had to pack a lunch every day. I had to attend parent-teacher meetings. I had to help them with their homework and it was an uphill battle worse than when I was choosing curriculum that was a good fit for their needs.

I have two twice exceptional sons (gifted and learning-disabled). One of our biggest challenges was keeping them in curriculum because if it was a good fit, they ran through it quickly and if it was a bad fit, I needed to ditch it and find another answer in short order. They didn't want to do it. It was bombing.

Homeschooling is easier if you have a child with health issues and special dietary needs. We liked to attend museums and other activities of that sort and stuff like that is educational. That's often a special field trip in public school. You can do more things like that as a homeschooler.

The biggest hassle of homeschooling is not teaching the kids. It's complying with state laws. Joining an email list to help you figure out how to track their progress so you aren't so stressed about that detail is very helpful. You can also join things like (iirc) the Homeschool Legal Defense Fund to get a newsletter and legal protection in case the state does get on your case about something.

You will want to look up the laws in your state. Some states are very lenient and others aren't. If you can comfortably comply with state law, then homeschooling can be a very happy experience for the entire family.

You will need to set boundaries to prevent "parent burnout" cited in the article. When my sons were in public school, they imposed on my time when they were home. If they were home, they felt entitled to make demands of my time and attention. With homeschooling, I had to establish boundaries and say "No, you can't do that to me 24/7. If my bedroom door is shut, knock. Don't burst in. If you want to talk to me, ask to arrange an appointment. Don't expect me to drop everything all the time."

In the long run, it was good for how we interacted. But it was kind of a hidden problem that wasn't obvious ahead of time would need to be addressed.

> What does the best possible X look like?

No such thing. Perfection is the enemy of the good enough.

> assume that we had unlimited funds

No such thing. Lack of constraints hampers creativity and teaching is essentially a creative venture.

> some reading material?

Look under the subject of 'Pedagogy'.

You didn't mention the word so I assume you're not familiar with the discipline. No worries, that's why you're here. It's a technical subject, deep and wide.

All that said every student is different. And to answer your title question: IMHO Enthusiasm is the main key. I never learned anything from a teacher bored with their subject or just getting their paycheck.

Look at Adam Savage. That's the kind of patience, fluency with technicality in a subject, willingness to learn, and boundless naive enthusiasm you'll need to transmit with high bandwidth the lessons at hand.

>If a curious, capable and motivated student

The premise of the question is problematic. Most students aren't curious (in the absolute sense, maybe), capable, or motivated.

Those who are are hindered by the crurrent system because it is designed for students who are not, who are the majority.

One of the biggest challenges of teaching is precisely that. How do you make the student curious and motivated so they become capable.

When the student is ready, the master appears.

Does this imply that if no "master appeared" as of yet, only the student's "readiness" is to blame?