Keep it simple, stupid.
KISS
It is a philosophy often suggested for design and communication, stating that things tend to work best when they are kept simple, avoiding unnecessary complication.
It is common sense.
I was reading a brief article about the suggestions from a working group at the ministry of education, dating that schools should get back to basics and focus attention on reading, writing, and arithmetic.
About bloody time!
The scope creep of education systems has been immense in recent decades, and while I do think they should cover some wider topics, far too much time and resources are spent on areas that parents should be taking care of anyway. And far, far too much on all the inclusion and diversity conversation.
Inclusion is easy, stop making up exclusionary labelling and instead treat everyone fairly and humanely.
Done.
Back to school education. There are far too many layers of complexity and far too much focus on making learning fun. Learning isn't meant to be fun, especially if looking to be very good at something.
Taraz is crazy?
Maybe.
But I call bullshit on the having fun learning speeds up the process. I expect that this is only true in the early stages of learning when improvement happens fast and quote easily. But getting good at something comes with the law of diminishing returns, meaning that increasing effort is needed for decreasing gain. Being great at something requires massive effort for tiny amounts of improvement.
It is not fun.
It is repetitive, boring, painful. It doesn't come with dopamine kicks with every move. OT doesn't come with any reward most of the time. The changes happen so slowly, they are barely noticeable. And this is what it takes to be great.
School doesn't reach the process of improvement.
I stead of teaching people how to learn, they have doubled down on what to learn. This means that as more learning is required, they have to pack larger amounts in, whilst also dealing with all of the problem learners in the classrooms. It just doesn't work.
Instead, they should be simplifying the curriculum and taking all they know about learning and teach how to learn while drilling the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Build the foundation strong and only then start widening the topics. Get kids practical experience with the process of becoming great and support them to excel at the basics. Help them be great at them. Once they are comfortable with real leaf in, they can branch out and learn what they want at a much faster rate abd depth than a school can provide.
Crawl before walk.
Shortcutting learning to get quick results doesn't have positive long-term effects, as we are witnessing now. It is like we have forgotten the tortoise and the hard story, and how slow ad steady wind the race.
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
Get the basics right and learning becomes smooth, and then fast. Abd I would suggest that simplifying the classroom curriculum would result in providing a more stable environment for the kids who are having difficulties and free up resources to better help them anyway.
Simplification of systems should be the goal of all designers, because it leads to more reliable, robust outcomes. It doesn't matter if it is a gadget, an education or tax system, or social communities - they work better when they are simple. And no, it doesn't necessarily leave people excluded, because it can still be supplemented as required. But the supplements don't need to be applied to all, only to those who need.
Education systems are falling for many reasons, but a big one is that they seem to have made n assumption that basics aren't required. They are all that is required. Because just like a dance, once you know the basics, you can start building personal flair.
Anyway. I wrote this in bed on my phone, so it is likely packed with typos.
I am okay with that.
Taraz
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I think I told you about that conversation I had with a friend ages ago where they were all "[several things] should be taught at school" and while I agreed on some level I was also like "when" because school already drags on for like 7 hours each day, and in a lot of cases was like "I think parents should be doing that".
The counterargument was of course "yes but some won't".
Unpopular opinion: I don't think things should be forced on or taken away just because of the idiots who try to stop us from having nice things.
Valid opinion especially given a lot of results out of schools; I have however very consistently found across 17 years of homeschooling + 3 years of coaching that having fun learning does indeed speed up the process or at the very least smoothens it (if by nothing else other than making it more enjoyable for the kids that might not actually want to be there but are being forced either because school is a legal requirement or their parents threw them into the sport).
Precisely, this is what you're trying to mitigate so that the learning process continues. I just realised I don't actually know what you're complaint actually is as the repetitive boring painful stuff is still there, just dressed up a little (or a lot in my case apparently XD though I'm always happy to explain the madness behind my methods).
Very much this! I focused a lot on "how to learn" as part of the early/basic/foundational stuff and am reasonably certain that's helped them more than all the other stuff that...well is obviously still useful to know but was basically somewhat useful material to practice how to learn. The basics was all I really honed in on and everything else was just kind of built on top of that because "weirdly" it was easier whodathunkit.
Sadly like everything else good teaching "what to learn" is easier because it has blatantly obvious metrics that can go up even though they're not always useful.
Yes! This is the major issue with a lot of it. Parents aren't parenting. They think complaining about the teacher is good parenting.
For sure it does. But they are setting an expectation by gamifying everything that the child should never feel something difficult, boring or not fun. A bit of fun here and there makes the hard work easier to bear, but the hard work is by definition, hard.
Having a game for every math question only goes so far, before games aren't possible. If the kids aren't able to do some of it without the game, they will quit as soon as the games end and the only thing left is work.
If we honed learning ability first, 12 years of school could be done in 6 easily.
but someone in an office gets a bonus.
Ahh now I understand what you're complaining about. In which case I have no idea what the people you're complaining about are doing as I literally just dress the hard work up a little to make it less tedious and boring. And make absolutely no secret about that. And encouraging the kids to do likewise because making up your own games to get through mind numbing soul crushing tedium that just needs to be fought through is also a useful skill.
I think it just takes that long partly because sometimes it feels like glorified daycare and partly because when you're forcefully cramming everyone into the same situation purely on the basis of age you end up having to move at the pace of the slowest.
Nobody appreciates the grind anymore. Even in World of Warcraft you can advance right ot the highest level now. It's pretty crazy. Life is a grind, period. I think it's funny that everyone gets bent out of shape and assumes that teachers have time to sit around and talk about gender with kids. At least in my neck of the woods it just isn't happening. They have too many other expectations thrown at them by the government who hasn't stepped foot in a classroom since they went to school to worry about that other stuff.
It is somewhat happening here, but not too much. Finland is behind the US in these social movements - but unfortunately catching fast.
And from parents who don't parent their own children also.
Haha, yes, that last part is very true!
I like how our daughter's school is teaching them to work in teams on projects even in the sixth and seventh grade. I don't know if fifth grade was like that as she entered this International baccalaureate program and this school in sixth grade. They teach a lot of stuff and I think that is great, though they can ease up on the whole diversity and inclusion program and the whole 20+ genders thing...
For sure. It is not the place of schools at all in my opinion to give moral opinions, and that is what it is. Teach the biology for sure, but stay out of the opinions.
Back to some of the basics is for sure part of the solution. Technology is awesome but not everytime, and I think it was exactly Finland that was stepping back on all the computer craziness in small children and having them to actually write again, given the importance the brain-hand axis has.
Yeah, Finland is starting to pull back on the tech now, but it has been 20 years of slide into uselessness. Maybe there is another twenty years chance ahead to change, but who knows with this political climate.
At least they're doing the work... here in Portugal the eye opening is way slower, to put it nicely.
I think education should first prioritize the fundamentals like reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Es vital tomarse un tiempo para agradecer por la salud y las bendiciones. El santuario se ve realmente hermoso y sereno.
It is vital to take time to give thanks for health and blessings. The shrine looks truly beautiful and serene
Overall, I don’t think simplicity means stripping things down to the point of being rigid it’s more about clarity and focus. Get the essentials right make sure students actually understand them, and then build outward That balance is probably where things should be heading.
Educational learning can be dynamic. sometimes it is very true that Being great at something requires massive effort but sometimes in educational aspects including fun makes understand easier.
I totally agree with you! Keeping things simple is often the best solution. Your point about 'getting back to basics' like reading and math really makes sense. It's true that you need a strong foundation to truly excel at anything later on. Thank you for sharing your deep thoughts! ^^
u crazy! j/k.
i often had 'fun' learning, but not haha kind of fun. but yea, basics are key.