The Biggest Missing Piece in Education of Top Students
by rrusczyk, Jun 17, 2006, 3:21 PM
I'd love to say it's AoPS, but it's not.
While here in NYC, we visited the Darwin exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I saw there an important aspect of Darwin's education that I'm pretty sure we could find in nearly all great scientist/mathematician's education (and great artists and inventors as well). The common thread to nearly all these 'great thinkers' is time. Nearly all of them had some period early in life during which they had the freedom to explore intellectually. Darwin's came after he flamed out of a couple schools out of sheer boredom.
For most top students, there is no time in high school. That's a brutal shame. Instead, they're busy punching their college application cards, because that's what the system has trained them to do. They get good at 23 things, because allegedly that's what Harvard wants. However, that's not what the world wants, and that's not what most people want for themselves. If you do, fine. But most people who really excel in life do so because they find something they are passionate about and do it. And then do it some more. Maybe it's 2-3 things they become outstanding at, but it certainly isn't 97 things they are merely passably good at. Bizarrely, our current educational system (and it's the perception of our current college admissions system) doesn't allow for unstructured exploration or for focused excellence. There's no free time - there's just enough time for the next activity. The result is a striving for unfocused mere goodness.
I'm fairly certain that had I gone to a boot-camp college prep high school, there would have been no AoPS, and considerably less career success in other areas as well. Instead, I went to a run-of-the-mill public high school before the '15 APs or bust' era of college applications. I had oceans of time, and used it (mostly) well. Now, I think this path is open mainly only to homeschoolers, though a few schools still are able to provide freedom to their students.
If we at AoPS ever build a school (pipe dream #137), a big part of it will be free time. Let the students learn less - but empower them to be able to create more.
While here in NYC, we visited the Darwin exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I saw there an important aspect of Darwin's education that I'm pretty sure we could find in nearly all great scientist/mathematician's education (and great artists and inventors as well). The common thread to nearly all these 'great thinkers' is time. Nearly all of them had some period early in life during which they had the freedom to explore intellectually. Darwin's came after he flamed out of a couple schools out of sheer boredom.
For most top students, there is no time in high school. That's a brutal shame. Instead, they're busy punching their college application cards, because that's what the system has trained them to do. They get good at 23 things, because allegedly that's what Harvard wants. However, that's not what the world wants, and that's not what most people want for themselves. If you do, fine. But most people who really excel in life do so because they find something they are passionate about and do it. And then do it some more. Maybe it's 2-3 things they become outstanding at, but it certainly isn't 97 things they are merely passably good at. Bizarrely, our current educational system (and it's the perception of our current college admissions system) doesn't allow for unstructured exploration or for focused excellence. There's no free time - there's just enough time for the next activity. The result is a striving for unfocused mere goodness.
I'm fairly certain that had I gone to a boot-camp college prep high school, there would have been no AoPS, and considerably less career success in other areas as well. Instead, I went to a run-of-the-mill public high school before the '15 APs or bust' era of college applications. I had oceans of time, and used it (mostly) well. Now, I think this path is open mainly only to homeschoolers, though a few schools still are able to provide freedom to their students.
If we at AoPS ever build a school (pipe dream #137), a big part of it will be free time. Let the students learn less - but empower them to be able to create more.
February 2012
January 2012