Great summary thoughts from Bob Frankston on Jerry's Retreat list.


It's also worth thinking about education in a larger context -- it's not
just getting the parents to be supportive -- they often need to be educated
themselves. Reading yes, but dealing with life. Of course that's gets into
value issues but simple things like payment for work being an exchange
rather than a due. Of course once we start with that we need to face up to
other issues such as depression, especially among women (though, being
sensitive to Summers learning experience, we have to be cautious about
assuming depression is intrinsic as opposed to social).

Now that I've raised all these, we next need to decompose them into
actionable elements in various configurations.

The assumption I'm making is that being education or literate is of value in
itself rather than just for getting a better job. That notion itself may the
essential element of becoming functionally literate.

Message: 3 Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 11:45:37 -0400 From: "Bob Frankston" Subject: RE: Re: "The World is Flat, After All"

"reading" like "keyboarding" emphasizes the mechanical, not cognitive skill.

How does one teach understanding and learning. It does mean teaching how to "decompose a problem. Anticipating objections -- that's not reductionism in that it's a representation not a the only reality.

Perhaps the most important point, going back to Papert, is debugging. If you don't understanding something or get it wrong on a test then debug your understanding, don't look for confirmation of your stupidity.

We also need to recognize that people come in with different cognitive styles due to a combination of implicit heuristics, cultural assumptions and possibly physiological differences.

And patience -- you don't have to master A before going to B -- you can back fill as you get context.

And the goal of education is to be educated and to be able to train yourself. It's not to produce another iteration of ditch diggers.

That said one does need some skills to be a good ditch digger like reading signs that say "buried gas line".

"the benefit/entitlement view of education... the idea that an education is something you are granted rather than something you go out and sieze/create/discover for yourself.

Especially with the communication and media resources available today, the solution seems pretty simple:

Teach the kids to read, instill a little intellectual curiosity decompose a problem. Anticipating objections -- that's not reductionism in that it's a representation not a the only reality.

Perhaps the most important point, going back to Papert, is debugging. If you don't understanding something or get it wrong on a test then debug your understanding, don't look for confirmation of your stupidity.

We also need to recognize that people come in with different cognitive styles due to a combination of implicit heuristics, cultural assumptions and possibly physiological differences.

And patience -- you don't have to master A before going to B -- you can back fill as you get context.

And the goal of education is to be educated and to be able to train yourself. It's not to produce another iteration of ditch diggers.

That said one does need some skills to be a good ditch digger like reading signs that say "buried gas line".

April 11.

Bob and I conversed on the phone for 45 minutes or so.

Everything is obvious so we should teach only the exceptions. People need to learn how to think critically. The goal is learning to learn. The educated person can find his own solutions. What does it take to be literate?

Information should be structured for understanding.

Problem is that learners don't know what's on the other side of the hill. (Breadcrumbs?)

People tend to look for agreement. It's more productive to start with disagreement and work backward from that. It helps if, like Bob, you never learned respect. Always question. Everything is suspicious.

Training focuses on a specific answer, not an understanding to generalize from.

"How do you teach a four-year old to be a five-year old? You simply get out of the way. But it takes a year." JSB?

At MIT 100th birthday of EE, "things haven't changed."

Pinker is all cognitive. Contrast with Andy Clark. How things learn, as well as people.

Follow up: Denise Caruso, Hybrid Venture Institute, multidisciplinary. Andy Clark, AI. Pinker. Enginers for Education. Brad Templeton.

Learning is an almost value-free term. One can learn for good or for evil. My meme that it improves connections is judgmental.

Ambiguity is fundamental. Claude Shannon showed you could have information with having meaning.

Some learning takes a generation. Nerd power rules the day.