Elon Musk Establishes a Grade School 234
HughPickens.com writes with news that Elon Musk has established "Ad Astra," a small, private school for grade-school-age kids. His goal for the school is to eliminate actual differences between the grades. The school had only 14 students for the past year, but will likely expand to 20 next September. Musk says, "It's important to teach problem solving, or teach to the problem and not the tools." As an example, he says teaching kids about tools should be more about taking an engine apart and learning about neccessary tools as the need arises, rather than just dumping information on them about a bunch of tools in an abstract way. "Musk's approach to delete grade level numbers and focus on aptitude may take the pressure off non-linear students and creates a more balanced assessment of ingenuity."
Oh wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Elon just invented single teacher, country schools with low student numbers!
While I admire his ambition, any school system is going to improve if you bump the teacher/student ratio by a factor 2 or 3
Re: (Score:3)
It actually sounds a lot more like Montessori than anything else. Not exactly new.
Montessori (Score:2)
Yes, much closer to a Montessori school than a country schoolhouse, although perhaps a bit more focused than I remember Kindergarten...
Re:Oh wow (Score:5, Insightful)
While I admire his ambition, any school system is going to improve if you bump the teacher/student ratio by a factor 2 or 3
Not to mention the fact that his private school doesn't have to take in troubled kids from the hood, kids with learning disabilities, or poor kids whose single parents are working 2-3 jobs.
Re:Oh wow (Score:4, Insightful)
troubled kids from the hood, kids with learning disabilities, or poor kids whose single parents are working 2-3 jobs
Not everything has to be about the "troubled kids" you know. We spend more than enough money trying to help the troubled kids. I think society gets more bang for the buck from helping a bright kid achieve more than a troubled kid fail slightly less.
Re: (Score:2)
Then maybe we should fund that....
Re: (Score:2)
People get rich, other people think they must be a true genius.
I got recruiter spam to work for a company. It pointed out in parentheses that the CEO was the cousin of Elon Musk. Just raw name dropping, because no one could be so stupid as to think someone's relatives say anything about him. Just more celebrity worship.
Re: (Score:2)
well.... he should watch out for patent infringement claims from Little House on the Prairie. /duck
Actually, it's closer to Montessori (Score:3)
Actually, it's closer to Montessori.
There's nine Montessori schools in the Los Angeles County area, so it's not like he couldn't have just paid for the kids to go to one of those.
There's not a lot of public Montessori's, however they are becoming more common (e.g. North Shoreview and ParkSide Elementary in San Mateo), but they tend to be Magnet schools, and there tends to be a lottery to get in because everyone wants their kid to get in. On the plus side, if you have multiple kids, once the older one gets
Re: (Score:2)
And if you look at who, it's mainly the Republicans who want a strong central government bossing the states around in the classrooms, NCLB and all that.
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting but... (Score:3)
It is an interesting idea but I fear it will work with a group of students that would do well anyway.
I really would rather see him dump money into an inner city school or even offering scholarships or loan forgiveness for teachers.
Most of the problems with education seem to be cultural and economic. Areas with successful parents tend to have successful students. The parents are involved and push the kids to do well. I just do not think that a "new way" of teaching will solve the root problem in the educational system in the US.
If the parents don't care only the small number of self motivated students will do well.
Re: (Score:2)
I really would rather see him dump money into an inner city school or even offering scholarships or loan forgiveness for teachers.
Where else do you think should he dump his money?
Also, do you really think that throwing more money at inner city schools will fix or make a dent in the problem?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, what problem is this making a dent in other than a billionaire setting up a small private school for his kids and some of his employees?
Because if the entire story is "billionaire sets up private school for own kids" ... who gives a shit?
If he's purely doing something for his own benefit, this has no business being in the news. Because then it's just "rich asshole can afford to buy his children a better education than you can afford", and kind of pointless.
Otherwise, we'd see daily stories that say "
Re: (Score:2)
Well, what problem is this making a dent in other than a billionaire setting up a small private school for his kids and some of his employees?
Because if the entire story is "billionaire sets up private school for own kids" ... who gives a shit?
Well, he worked on the Tesla battery technology for years, and then open sourced the patents.
I expect that as soon as he's satisfied it's tweaked to the point it's working as intended, he will open source the curriculum for the school.
I suspect that, should this happen, it's not going to change much about education, since really public education is how to get promoted to the point you are an administrator, and can start raking in the 6 figure salaries, and really has dick-alll to do with teaching kids these
Re: (Score:2)
He can do what he wants with his money. I was making an assumption that his goal was to improve education. It is a suggestion that I think would help him get closer to that goal.
As to throwing money at inner city schools? That depends on the school. If they are lacking funds for music and the arts then yes it could help.
Re: (Score:2)
He can do what he wants with his money. I was making an assumption that his goal was to improve education. It is a suggestion that I think would help him get closer to that goal.
As to throwing money at inner city schools? That depends on the school. If they are lacking funds for music and the arts then yes it could help.
Bad assumption, though in general Elon Musk does try to shake things up in a way that will ultimately benefit society in general. He didn't like how his children were being taught so he created a school for them and the children of some other SpaceX employees that agreed with his philosophy. Musk tends to be very results oriented so it's awesome that he's doing this. Why? Because if it works, he'll expand upon it and we'll all learn something about education. If it doesn't work, he'll kill it (after tr
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It is an interesting idea but I fear it will work with a group of students that would do well anyway. I really would rather see him dump money into an inner city school or even offering scholarships or loan forgiveness for teachers.
Lets not change too many variables at once. Work the kinks out with low risk students and then bring in the high risk students.
Please stop Elon. (Score:2, Interesting)
It seems every time I hear the words "Elon Musk", my bullshit detector goes off. Education is complex because people are complex. It can't be solved by a billionaire with an ax to grind and some vague ideas about how to fix it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
These days, Slashdotters have been Musk worshiping even worse than they used to Jobs worship. Glad to see someone else here who isn't firmly in his cult.
And for someone who's such a libertarian, every one of his schemes sure seems to depend awful heavily on my tax dollars to actually work.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd say Musk relies far less on tax dollars than Jobs did. Apple, despite all their billions, pays virtually no taxes. Tesla got a government loan and paid it off early with interest. There's a tax subsidy for buying an electric car, but it's no different if you buy a Leaf or a Model S. The carbon tax credits Tesla gets are not a major source of revenue and they don't come out of your taxes, but from companies that pollute.
Unlike Jobs, Elon is an engineer. He doesn't go around suing everyone over stupid pat
Re: (Score:2)
Er...what's the "tech" story? (Score:2)
This is pretty much how a lot of small private schools get founded. Rich dude and/or his wife decide they need a special school for their snowflakes, and they will it into existence. Other wealthy people pile on, and suddenly the wealthy dude's pet project has an endowment, a decade of history, some experienced teachers and finally, some of the upper middle class find that they can afford to put their kids through it.
So...what, exactly is the tech angle? (This has been going on for hundreds if not thousa
Re: (Score:2)
he got rich by tech...?!! and if you get rich by tech... every dump you take can be on /. too!!
Small school advantage (Score:2)
Back in the days I went two years(5th and 6th grade) to a small school on a island with a total of about 20 kids in grades 1-6.
There were further about 20 in 9-12 as kids from neighboring island came to the same school. (They had their own 1-6 grade school)
The school was organized so that the kids in grade 1-2 where in one classroom and 3-6 in other.
Some of the subjects were taught together regardless of what grade you were in, some others were more self study with teacher moving around to help as needed.
At
natural learning (Score:2)
This is the natural way in which children learn in society for all of history...until perhaps the past 100 years...by helping to solve problems that needed solving in their family and community, taking on roles that were appropriate for their age and ability...much better than sitting down for rigid teaching lessons...at least for me.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but teaching children at their own pace doesn't fit the industrial assembly line educational model based on a yearly agricultural schedule.
Montessori (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: Two quick fixes to mass replicate (Score:2)
I'm all for this solution, but only AFTER having done everything we possibly can to change the education system from one that makes learning as painful as possible for most kids into one that actually makes learning enjoyable.
Till then, I think we should ship all the dropouts to your neighborhood.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, plenty of kids and teens would not get educated, but they're probably not get anything now either. You can't make a student that won't learn educated anymore than you can make a morbidly obese person who refuses to eat right healthy. Sometimes society is better off with such people being allowed to make themselves into warnings for others.
Setting aside the sheer depravity of this argument, we have ample historical context for what happens when society cuts off the neediest. France, Haiti, Cuba, China, Russia, Algeria, Egypt, India, Scotland, The Phillipines, Mexico--just to name a few places where social and political inequality have driven massive, bloody revolts.
Wealth and political power calcify with the already wealthy and powerful. The middle and working classes slowly lose what wealth they have through attrition. Poverty becomes a virt
Re: (Score:2)
"I am just going to make my kid take his chances with the same lowest-common-denominator education that all the other kids receive. I am sure that he can rise above the herd anyway."
That's exactly what I did. Disclaimer - I'm not rich. My wife proposed to send our kids to a private school for the obvious reason of a better quality education. I suggested we take the money that we would have spent on private school and spend it on a house in a better area closer to town. The kids would be able to atte
Home-schoolling for the wealthy . . . (Score:2)
Billionaires funding schools = bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people might point to this as a good thing, but I disagree. When rich, influential people begin taking control over key aspects of our society, such as education, even small experiments like this run the risk of being trotted out as the antidote to all those evil government-run schools out there.
Look at political advertising pre- and post- Citizens United decision. Smart people can see though most BS that either side generates. However, the reality is that the masses are definitely swayed by political ads. Now, it's just a matter of who has the most money and can blanket people with their message. A lot of political advertising is "issue advertising" designed not to promote a candidate, but an ideology. Education sounds like a perfect place to get that message in early. (And yes, I'm aware that the conservatives will point out the evil liberal agenda that public schools have...anything that isn't American exceptionalism is an evil liberal plot.)
I'm not saying it would happen, but giving influential people access to educational institutions could just end up creating students in their own image.
Re: (Score:2)
Some people might point to this as a good thing, but I disagree. When rich, influential people begin taking control over key aspects of our society, such as education, even small experiments like this run the risk of being trotted out as the antidote to all those evil government-run schools out there.
Look at political advertising pre- and post- Citizens United decision. Smart people can see though most BS that either side generates. However, the reality is that the masses are definitely swayed by political ads. Now, it's just a matter of who has the most money and can blanket people with their message. A lot of political advertising is "issue advertising" designed not to promote a candidate, but an ideology. Education sounds like a perfect place to get that message in early. (And yes, I'm aware that the conservatives will point out the evil liberal agenda that public schools have...anything that isn't American exceptionalism is an evil liberal plot.)
I'm not saying it would happen, but giving influential people access to educational institutions could just end up creating students in their own image.
The dude created a private school for his kids and for some people that agreed that they don't like the current US educational system. He's not taking control of anything. He's running an experiment in educating his own children. He's an interesting guy and it's an interesting experiment. No public funds were used, no public policy was changed, no agenda was forced down anyone's throat.
Rich school for rich kids (Score:2, Redundant)
Translation: Wealthy low pressure school created for wealthy children who already have zero stress in their lives.
*click* Next article.
Call me back when you decide to use some of your billions to help the kids in Oakland or Redwood City, Musk.
Re: (Score:2)
Translation: You're not interested in smart kids. You're probably also the type who thinks we should end world hunger before daring to venture into space or mess around with worthless stuff like high speed internet.
Maybe it IS a PR stunt ... (Score:3)
for that system of education. Much research (which I can't cite) supports the techniques he is using. Perhaps all Musk is doing is to lend his name and fame to the promotion of the idea itself. Many people in the upper echelons of the education community, as well as the politicians who make the big direction decisions, are fad followers. If Musk can turn this well established education technique into "The Latest Thing" then maybe it will be adopted and accepted more widely.
That's nice (Score:2)
Let's be clear - this is a school for *HIS* kids.. (Score:3)
What is missing from the discussion is Musk wanted to make a "home, but not home-home" school for his kids and decided to rope a few other parents along for the ride.
Elon Musk didn't like his kids' school, so he started his own,
[...]
Ad Astra School is "very small and experimental," and caters to a small group of children whose parents are primarily SpaceX employee
[...]
Musk pulled his kids out of their school and even hired one of their teachers away to start Ad Astra.
[...]
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
I am not sure if this is partial reaction from his youthful years being bullied in South Africa, or the private school his kiddos were going to did not live up to Musk's standards, but I would be critical of educational coverage and results.
Here we go again... (Score:2)
Elon on the fast track to developing more things that only benefit the already rich.
Re: (Score:2)
Elon on the fast track to developing more things that only benefit the already rich.
Your post juxtaposed with your signature has pegged my irony meter at 11.
He's using the money generated by creating a luxury product (Tesla Model S) to fund the development of a middle class product and the required infrastructure (Superchargers, Gigafactory, and Tesla factory expansion) to support the middle class product (Model 3). That bastard, using a sustainable business model to achieve an important goal. He should have started with some piece of shit electric golf cart that no one wants and gone ou
Re: (Score:2)
The problem is that you think he builds middle class products. He hasn't done that, even though he keeps telling us it's coming. Nothing he has achieved with his current enterprise has been designed to do anything other than line his pockets and provide better quality of life for the 1%.
wow (Score:2)
that's amazing. we should scrap the public school system and rely on the whims of super-rich individuals to educate a handful of students.
Re: (Score:2)
that's amazing. we should scrap the public school system and rely on the whims of super-rich individuals to educate a handful of students.
That's not what he's trying to do. He's trying to improve his own children's education and he's stating his opinion on the matter. But given your reading comprehension, you may have a point.
Intersting but.. (Score:2)
Re:Time for a change? (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly, with how important education is; it's probably better that it's more or less off the table. Let the educators teach, let the politicians do.. whatever it is they do.
When politics enters education, you wind up with things like "no child left behind'.
Re: (Score:3)
The problem is, when you look at local taxes, there's actually a LOT of money in education.
http://www.usgovernmentspendin... [usgovernmentspending.com]
It's right there behind health care and pensions, both of which we've seen being raided by the politicians in the past few administrations.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
health care and pensions, both of which we've seen being raided by the politicians in the past few administrations.
What?? It this "opposites" day? Both health care (Medicare) and pensions (Social Security) have not only not been "raided", but are being unsustainably financed by politicians too terrified to attempt any reform. I wish that spending was being "raided". We should be investing more in young families with children, and get spending on retirees under control.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey now, I am retired and I don't even take (I think I am old enough now - I have not looked to be honest) the Social Security that I paid in. I don't need it. I have plenty. They can keep their ransom money. They can spend it on someone else seeing as I paid a LOT in.
Re: (Score:2)
Unless you're at least 67, you'll be leaving a lot of money on the table.
If you are 67, and you really don't want that extra couple grand a month, you think you can just cash the checks and send them to a worthy charity? I'm thinking specifically about my bookie. I mean broker.
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm... No. I am not quite there. I have about seven more years to wait. Either way, I still won't need it. It is quite probable that it is impossible for me to need it. I do not live miserly but I do not need to make any large expenditures and even a moderate amount of large expenditures are acceptable as interest is good and the tax rate is absurdly low on such. My big purchases these days are usually properties. I am surrounded by land that was owned and raped (has been replanted or grown back naturally)
Re: (Score:2)
Now that's a sentiment I can relate to.
Not at all. It was a perfect post.
Re: (Score:2)
I feel like I owe an additional explanation...
I am an atheist and a Buddhist. The two are perfectly compatible.
I observed people coming into the area, "from away," that bought up large portions of property. This property has been used for hunting, fishing, and recreation for years by the local populace. They ignored this culture and marked the land as private with the appropriate legal signage and the likes... I find this deplorable and against the laws of humankind.
I have another post in this area if you r
The problem is... (Score:2)
The problem is...
The problem is that there are tens of millions of children needing education.
A school teaching tens of children (that have been hand-selected to attend) may be heartwarming, but it's irrelevant by factors of millions. With sufficient resources, it's easy to teach ten or twenty students (especially if you're allowed to select which ones).
It's replicating that by a million times that's hard.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The past is the future. Seriously, doesn't this somewhat remind us of the one room school house?
I know things are different but I think the younger kids will have an easier go with beimg somewhat exposed to more complicated concepts and likely see how or why completely alien in appearance processes come together.
Re: (Score:2)
I know things are different but I think the younger kids will have an easier go with beimg somewhat exposed to more complicated concepts
Instead of that pre-chewed, pre-rationed BS? Oh yeah! I would have been all for that.
Re:Time for a change? (Score:4, Insightful)
Honestly, with how important education is; it's probably better that it's more or less off the table. Let the educators teach, let the politicians do.. whatever it is they do.
Musk isn't a politician, and this isn't a new idea. The current, regimented-by-grade system was explicitly invented to train kids to be good little manufacturing workers (back when those were the bast jobs most people could get, it was a good enough plan). But before that, before we twisted the educational system into a manufacturing-job-training system, you didn't divide kids up by age like we do today.
The old way had the teacher directly teach the older kids an the age rage, who would then be responsible for teaching the younger kids themselves. This is a great system: you learn better through mentoring, you develop better critical thinking skills when the person teaching you is sometimes wrong, and you likely develop leadership skills along the way.
There may be a better system for the modern era, but the old-school (heh) system seems vastly better than what we have.
Re:Time for a change? (Score:5, Interesting)
The old way had the teacher directly teach the older kids an the age rage, who would then be responsible for teaching the younger kids themselves. This is a great system: you learn better through mentoring, you develop better critical thinking skills when the person teaching you is sometimes wrong, and you likely develop leadership skills along the way.
Having spent part of my time in a system set up like you describe... it's the *ABSOLUTELY WORST* thing you can do to a high achieving kid: take away their opportunity to reach even greater heights, in exchange for keeping them busy by becoming an unpaid teaching assistant.
Thankfully, it really didn't work out (having a 4th grader teach 6th graders math just gets that 4th grader beat up during lunch and after school), and they backed off eventually. Which was fine with me, because I was already working on calculus, organic chemistry, and college level reading that the bookmobile lady snuck me after doubling my number of books checked out quota over everyone elses.
If you want to go back to the "Little House On The Prairie"-style one room schoolhouse, good on you, but please do not drag high achieving kids back there with you, or worse try to "socialize them at their grade level", because I'm telling you, you might as well buy them a T-Shirt with a target on it.
Musk may not being anything new -- and he's really, reading the 3 articles, just describing Montessori with a couple of tweaks, like taking the grade level away -- but at least at his school I don't think you'd be holding back those who are able to vastly outpace the slower learners.
Re: (Score:2)
I think that mixing the smart kids in with everyone else is just misguided in the first place - that it's a passing symptom of the "participation trophy" culture (which has IMO passed it's peak and already started the other way). Do you think the old-school system would work well if it were all smart kids?
IMO it would - it would in fact let you socialize properly with people smart enough to get your jokes (or at least, that was always my problem). And the nice part is: it scales down well - for smaller sc
Re: (Score:3)
Perhaps the issue is trying to implement such a system within the current system.
I don't think further sequestering the "smart kids" from (presumably) "not smart" kids is a good idea -- unless you want to promote the idea of classes of people and, indirectly, the values of those classes to society. Smart kids need to learn that the alleged dumb kids aren't useless members of society, and dumb kids needs to learn that smart kids are just kids, too. They will have plenty of time to be smart as they get older,
Re: (Score:2)
Smart kids need to learn that the alleged dumb kids aren't useless members of society, and dumb kids needs to learn that smart kids are just kids, too.
Perhaps, but leaving them together doesn't teach that lesson. Instead, it teaches that being smart is good way to get a beating and that the authorities aren't there to help you.
Re: (Score:2)
There are undreamed vistas of technological advancement that are abandoned by not helping the most intelligent children advance as fast as possible. Hampering the development of smart kids by corralling them with dummies in the false hope of achieving some fuzzy sociological goal helps nobody.
It's the teacher's job (not the job of bright students) to see that everyone learns, and putting children with a wide range of abilities in one class makes the teacher's job more difficult and less effective.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, wait a minute. My freshman year at Catholic high school I made enough money doing football players' Latin homework that I was able to start a nice record collection. It taught me entrepreneurship, the value of a dollar and the fact that football players were decent enough guys, one of whom could get the best weed.
You're talking about taking away some of the most valuable learning experiences of my youth. T
Re: (Score:2)
So you're saying that our educational system should focus on not leaving any children behind? What a startlingly original idea - I can see no flaw in that plan!
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not saying that any more than you're saying our educational system should focus on leaving a large percentage of children behind.
Because I think I can see a tiny flaw in that plan.
Re: (Score:2)
I was always of the opinion that the No Child Left Behind program should be amended to the Few Children Left Behind program.
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, wait a minute. My freshman year at Catholic high school I made enough money doing football players
I'll bet!
Re: (Score:2)
, foreign interventionism (biggest waste of money ever), education, and many other issues are ignored.
Which planet are you on where education and foreign wars are ignored ?
Re: (Score:3)
Capital gains: only long term capital gains are taxed less than ordinary income, and much of that isn't real gain, it's smaller dollars ("inflation") used to price assets that have unchanged value. Additionally, capital gains on stocks are representative of corporate gains, which have already been taxed.
Similarly, inheritances are gains from a person's lifetime that have already been subject to a whole array of taxes, primarily income and property. You are claiming that there's something wrong with a person
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, we've had this current system for so long, would it really hurt to try another one?
We've had the old system in place since the dawn of the Industrial Age. It no longer suits our needs because we don't need Industrial Education. YET, we are fighting to keep it, rather than use the metrics we have available under the information age to have appropriate education for every student at all times. We no longer need Teachers, but we rather need facilitators, to help kids maximize their potential at the time they can attain it. The methods of Industrial education do not afford us the ability to t
Re: (Score:3)
why is education literally never a talking point during elections?
Because you're talking about Federal elections, and education is funded and managed almost entirely at the state and local levels of government.
Lots of people, including Sen. Ted Cruz, think that "Common Core" is a federal initiative. It was developed by the National Governors Association and approved per state.
Re: (Score:2)
What are you talking about? The Affordable Care Act was a federal law signed by the President.
Re: (Score:2)
>> "And another thing, why is education literally never a talking point during elections?"
At this risk of sounding trollish you cannot possibly be paying attention. Around election time we have grandstanding on all sort of education subjects: Evolution and Creationism. When/if kids should learn about reproduction and birth control. Outcome based education. Benchmarking. Multi-culturalism in our history and Social Studies curriculum. Safety in schools. School lunch programs ("Michelle Obama lun
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Any change is for the better when it comes to the US school system. Not just the "three Rs", but things that have gotten lost in the shuffle to comply with the whip of standardized tests:
1: Critical thinking. A solid BS detector is quite important these days. Things like being able to read arguments, file them as red herrings, straw men, appeal to emotion, and other logical fallacies.
2: Situational awareness, and how to handle hostile people, be it a schoolyard bully, and later in life, a belligerent d
Re: (Score:2)
You were in Maine. You probably needed the guns to protect yourself from black flies the size of crows.
Also, Kent's Hill is a high school with a $48,000/year tuition. You probably had a gun valet carry your weapons for you when you were walking from class to class.
Re: (Score:2)
Conspiracy aside, there is little reason to expect major educational improvements to be possible. You get huge benefits from teaching literacy and basic arithmetic, and almost everyone is intelligent enough to do them, at least at some level. By the time you hit the level of a rigorous high school, though, you have either abandon
Re: (Score:2)
...The only thing I can every recall from any president is that 'children are the future' and other such nonsense soundbites. ....
Well, I believe that children are our future. If you teach them well, then just let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty they possess inside.
Re:Wow ... no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
hard to see this as a PR stunt. he's revolutionized online payments, fired rockets into space and built the best car on the market (consumer reports + consumers)...don't think he needs the PR from a 20 person school.
i suspect he's just doing something that he thinks is cool and could help educate.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, eliminating grade levels is an idea with some pedigree. One-room country schools may have had grades but they didn't matter much. Older kids helped younger kids and everybody learned stuff. There's also a chain of schools that was started back in the 60's, can't remember the name off hand, it was something like "Sutter Valley School". Anyway, their belief is that play is the natural learning state for children. You don't need a curriculum, you just need minimal supervision and resources to answer
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, not really sure why this is news. While I admire Musk as much as anyone here for focusing his dotcom wealth on geeky quixotic tech ventures, starting their own grade 1 - 3 daycare for mostly SpaceX employees doesn't sound like that big of a deal.
Yes, there's a lot broken with US public education at the moment. New curriculum is getting more driven by testing, which itself is a ploy to destroy public education funding and divert it towards private "interventions" and "schools". It must be nice to ha
Re: (Score:2)
he's revolutionized online payments
So he is Satoshi Nakamoto?
Re: (Score:2)
The astronomer in me agrees. Though the end of that burning sure is more interesting to see if it burns VERY brightly!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I see it more as egotistical billionaire experiments on 20 children.
Maybe pop a Tesla Coil in the background, some nice large analog gauges and a whole bunch of sparking SPDT switches.
Re:Wow ... no kidding (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a prototype. It takes a lot of money and effort to make the first one that usually only works under ideal conditions. The next step is to make it work every time (or at least more than once). You certainly don't want to start out with 50M users because there might be a fatal flaw (i.e. every complex problem has an obvious, simple, and wrong solution). How would you begin a program that eliminates something as fundamental to US education as grade levels?
Re: (Score:2)
the question really isn't about "an egotistical billionaire" but rather about the education method.
" highly focused, very expensive private education can be effective" if this is proven true, then the other part of your statement, "that this doesn't tell you anything about educating the rest of them" is necessarily proven false.
Re: Wow ... no kidding (Score:2)
Sadâ¦so sad. Like crabs pulling the ones trying to escape back into the fatal boiling pot.
Truly, the American system is so last century that there is every indication enterprise likes the old fashioned ghetto workforce just connected on demand to servers for their profiteering.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if you let an egotistical billionaire run the education of 20 students, you will probably come up with awesome results.
But how much of this is applicable when it isn't being paid for by an egotistical billionaire?
You can say nothing about this other than ... highly focused, very expensive private education can be effective, but that this doesn't tell you anything about educating the rest of them.
You can't say this was better because you eliminated grades. This is a PR stunt, but it's not some revolution in education.
Or maybe it tells you that educating people properly is a very expensive endeavor requiring highly focused resources? Maybe we should redirect our economy toward that instead of spending trillions to ensure the middle east remains destabilized?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
most upper-middle parents abhor change (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)