Kids should learn to think | Hacker News Reader

Kids should learn to think

blog.codeso.me

44 pointsnielssj9 comments

Everyone should learn to think. But the basic problem is that critical thinking can't be divorced from specific content areas—in other words, you have to teach it through drawing, or coding, or Sonnets, or whatever. It is also, quite simply, hard to teach. That's Daniel Wilingham's research speaking; he describes more here: http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/summer2007/Crit_Thi... . His book Why Don't Students Like School? is also very good.

I wrote about it here: http://jseliger.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/why-dont-students-l... .

After reading 3 articles:

- Kids should learn to Code - Kids should learn to Farm not Code - And now, Kids should learn to think

I want to say, yes they are very noble causes, each with its benefit, but what really matters is:

Adults should learn to let Kids Live.

What I say does not mean that kids should go uneducated, but its rather, Kids should have choices, and we should not impose them to take 'X' no of choices. The stress is growing on kids, and true, they are becoming smarter, and the planet is growing faster, it does have a terrible cost: Childhood.

More importantly, kids should learn to learn from everything. Too often I work with kids or young adults that hate school, but after a little discussion, discover that they actually really love learning. If the education system is not meeting their needs, they should be empowered to take education into their own hands.

"Right Brain" people stil believe in the dichotomy of "creative" people and "non-creative" people (they still use the outdate terms "Right Brain" and "Left Brain"), probably because they associate technical work with mental computations and algebraic manipulation ("doing math").

It's true that technical people will are already less burdened by the heavy lifting of "doing math" or organizing complex technical systems, but that doesn't mean that they are going to be "replaced" by the "artists". It only means that the "soft-technical" aspect of, for example, engineering, is going to be more present (less time focusing on technical details and more on the design and articulation of the mathematical models themselves).

In my mind, in addition to teaching fundamental skills like reading and writing, the purpose of K-12 school is to expose kids to a bunch of different subjects so that hopefully they'll find something they're passionate about.

So yeah, every kid should (try to) learn to draw and code and everything else we can reasonably expose them to.

If only it worked that way. I think in practice it works by exposing kids to a significant amount of drudgery and pain associated with a bunch of different subjects to cause kids to pretty much hate learning in general. It's a wonder that anyone manages to survive K-12 education with any degree of passion for learning intact.

P.S. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2112

P.P.S. From a lot of different people I've heard the same story of having a hard time re-engaging in learning and especially reading after coming out of formal education. A lot of people have an aversion to the books and authors they studied in school, and often to reading in general. It seems to typically take several years for people to (re)develop an individual passion for reading and to be open to reading those authors again, though some people seem to never get past that aversion.

Related thoughts on education... from CGP Grey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_830833...

Also watch Greys favorites vol 4 (playlist on CGP Grey channel). These thoughts from Salman Khan are most relevant here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiKrFcgVSIU&list=PLgE-9Sx...

Kids should learn to swear in 32 different languages.

"Machines should work, People should think."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IZw2CoYztk

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