The elementary school I went to operated somewhat as a petri dish for psychiatric experiments, as I realized later, with class sizes around 15 students and extremely personalized teaching. My 8-12 grades were at a private prep school. Both could be scalable models, but it would require a moonshot level of public funding to go into hiring potential teachers away from more lucrative jobs. (Personally, I'd love it if my taxes went to that).
But I don't credit those schools for my success. Nor do I credit native intelligence. My two elder brothers are lawyers whose names you likely know; think of the largest case in recent history. One is severely dyslexic and the other I'd wager is mildly autistic. I'm a college dropout. Oddly, I earn more per hour designing databases than the famous one does taking down large companies. What we had in common was a pattern of learning how to think, how to be curious and ask questions, and how to separate wheat from chaff. All of which came from our grandfather, who was forced to leave a yeshiva at 12 years old, and his father, and his grandfather.
I truly believe that almost all formal education is bunk. It's a useless plaster on a gaping social wound, namely that parents don't have the toolset to teach children a love of learning throughout their lives, along with the methods and skills to do so for themselves. All the information taught in K-12 schools is readily available, yet most adults can't remember a thing about the most basic aspects of history, math or science. The reason being, they weren't interested when they learned it the first time, and they weren't raised to be curious enough to answer their own questions or (re)fill holes in their own knowledge. This is why most people can't utter the words, "I don't know, let's look it up." Moreover, most people don't believe it's their obligation as a person to be as well-rounded as they can make themselves, because no one ever told them that was important, even crucial to their survival.
Learning itself should be taught. And it can be taught at home. The major obstacle would be how to overcome, obliterate and shame the intellectual laziness of most people that's built into most cultures - including those of most who go to college. Everything else, all concepts and facts, can be learned later, and are ephemeral.
But I don't credit those schools for my success. Nor do I credit native intelligence. My two elder brothers are lawyers whose names you likely know; think of the largest case in recent history. One is severely dyslexic and the other I'd wager is mildly autistic. I'm a college dropout. Oddly, I earn more per hour designing databases than the famous one does taking down large companies. What we had in common was a pattern of learning how to think, how to be curious and ask questions, and how to separate wheat from chaff. All of which came from our grandfather, who was forced to leave a yeshiva at 12 years old, and his father, and his grandfather.
I truly believe that almost all formal education is bunk. It's a useless plaster on a gaping social wound, namely that parents don't have the toolset to teach children a love of learning throughout their lives, along with the methods and skills to do so for themselves. All the information taught in K-12 schools is readily available, yet most adults can't remember a thing about the most basic aspects of history, math or science. The reason being, they weren't interested when they learned it the first time, and they weren't raised to be curious enough to answer their own questions or (re)fill holes in their own knowledge. This is why most people can't utter the words, "I don't know, let's look it up." Moreover, most people don't believe it's their obligation as a person to be as well-rounded as they can make themselves, because no one ever told them that was important, even crucial to their survival.
Learning itself should be taught. And it can be taught at home. The major obstacle would be how to overcome, obliterate and shame the intellectual laziness of most people that's built into most cultures - including those of most who go to college. Everything else, all concepts and facts, can be learned later, and are ephemeral.