There are two types of people:
  • those who are autodidacts
  • those who didn't really learn
Some possible definitions:
  • learning without a gun pointed at your head
  • learning from an e-book or video rather than from a talking head 5 rows of chairs in front of you
    How that is different from a video, you tell me.
Inferior compared to self-directed learning, but better than the traditional "everyone gets the same" approach.
Video 1.
Project SOCRATES at Illinois University Urban-Champaign (1966)
Source. It is 2020, and we are not there yet. God!
Video 1.
Learning Approach Uncollege by Dale Stephens (2011)
Source.
You know things are bad when the extracurricular activities are what studnets should actually be doing full time instead!
This section is about organized groups of people doing extracurricular activities.
Some of them offer money prizes for all or some of the succesfull applicants.
Ciro Santilli approves of this one, related: Section "Free gifted education".
The downside of the Thiel Fellowship is that it is realistically impossible for its fellows to do anything in deep tech, only information science startups would be possible, as they would not have the labs, or lab skills required for any deep tech if they drop out before a PhD. Related: Section "The only reason for universities to exist should be the laboratories".
The only solution is the harder process of actually remodelling our very broken educational system.
The good:
The bad: everything else. Closed source learning materials + a university-like selection program. Such a waste of efforts that could benefit way more people with more open resources.
meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/4889/request-to-keep-an-eye-out-for-promys-admissions-problems asking to remove PROMYS problems from MathOverflow. And it seems to have been mostly accepted. Newbs. Any maths problem should be allowed to be askeable online. There are no fundamentally new problems, copyright takedown is just silly.
European PROMYS offshoot hosted at the University of Oxford. Started in 2015.
The structure seems to be: come every day for 6 weeks, one problem sheet per day. Go.
Strongly against giving answer to problem sets... sad, as of 2024: promys-europe.org/students/faq (archive):
When do I get the solutions to the problems on the problem sets?
When you discover them for yourself: on your own or collaborating with other students. Returning students and counsellors and faculty will support and encourage you, but not by giving you the answers (hint: they don't even give hints). What PROMYS Europe does is offer you the tools and structure to enable you to be a creative mathematician.
and:
What rules are there at PROMYS Europe?
They're mostly the ones you'd expect: don't do anything dangerous or illegal, don't divide by zero, don't even try to skip Friday Fun, and don't give anyone solutions to the problem sets (though collaboration is definitely OK).
It does not seem to be the case for the American version however after a quick look: promys.org/programs/promys/for-students/faq/. Sad to see.
Also participants are strongly forbidden from sharing the problem sheets with anyone from outside the program. Ciro Santilli asked a participant face to face if he could take a look, but was told that they are not allowed to share it. So it is a very clear and strict order. Truly sad.
Bezos Academy is building a network of tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire:
During his childhood and adolescence, Freire ended up four grades behind, and his social life revolved around playing pick-up football with other poor children, from whom he claims to have learned a great deal. These experiences would shape his concerns for the poor and would help to construct his particular educational viewpoint. Freire stated that poverty and hunger severely affected his ability to learn. These experiences influenced his decision to dedicate his life to improving the lives of the poor: "I didn't understand anything because of my hunger. I wasn't dumb. It wasn't lack of interest. My social condition didn't allow me to have an education. Experience showed me once again the relationship between social class and knowledge"
OMG so nice.
Ciro Santilli's definition, key characteristics:
This is the most extreme and final form of Peer tutoring, it's natural final consequence given the Internet Age.
Proponent of evergreen notes.
He's also curious about quantum computing: quantum.country/ like Ciro Santilli. Some crazy overlaps we get.
There is just one key gotcha: the project has to be useful.
www.quora.com/Is-MIT-the-only-place-where-homework-is-called-problem-sets
Terminology by location:
Places that say "problem set":Places that say "problem sheet":Places that say "example sheet":
Figure 1.
Front cover of the first edition of Emile, or On Education.
Source.
Good summary on the defunct Encyclopedia Britannica: www.britannica.com/topic/Emile-or-On-Education
it is not specifically about schooling but about the upbringing of a rich man’s son, Émile, by a tutor who is given unlimited authority over him. Rousseau’s aim throughout Émile is to show how a natural education, unlike the artificial and formal education of society, enables Émile to become social, moral, and rational while remaining true to his original nature
Also:
He learns a trade, among other things. He studies science, not by receiving instruction in its facts but by making the instruments necessary to solve scientific problems of a practical sort.
Book 1:
I do not consider these laughable establishments called Colleges as a public institution.
There are in several schools, and especially in the University of Paris, Professors whom I like, whom I esteem very much, and whom I believe very capable of instructing young people well, if they were not forced to follow established usage. I urge one of them to publish the reform project he designed. We will perhaps finally be tempted to cure the illness by seeing that it is not without a remedy.
Source:
Je n’envisage pas comme une institution publique ces risibles établissements qu’on appelle Colleges
Il y a dans plusieurs écoles, & surtout dans l’Université de Paris, des Professeurs que j’aime, que j’estime beaucoup, & que je crois très capables de bien instruire la jeunesse, s’ils n’étoient forcés de suivre l’usage établi. J’exhorte l’un d’entre eux à publier le projet de réforme qu’il a conçu. L’on sera peut-être enfin tenté de guérir le mal en voyant qu’il n’est pas sans remède.

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