[OT] Alan Kay is angry

Bob Sneidar bobsneidar at iotecdigital.com
Mon Sep 18 11:41:53 EDT 2017


Reading through that article, I get the sense that he believes that people are not educated or intellegent because the system of education is wholly responsible for failing to do so. Intellegent people often make this miscalculation, that they believe intellegence is something that can be nurtured. I disagree. 

I think we can do a lot to maximize the mental health and growth of each individual child, but every child is different, and only a few will ever excel. Alan Kay seems like one of those few, and is frustrated that more people cannot be made to think like him. With all my experience with people, trying to teach them just to use the technology in front of them to good advantage, I have come to believe that this is a fools errand. Some people cannot learn much more, but most simply WILL NOT learn. They only absorb enough technology to get them by. 

I think it's a huge mistake to try and treat all children as though they are capable of learning as well as the top 10 percentile. This approach has been disasterous in american schools, because what actually happens is, classes become tailored to the lowest percentile of students to try and bring them along, and those who might have excelled are held back until a stage in their development where it is likely too late. In America, we call that "equality". 

In Europe (I have heard) or at least in some countries, exceptional children are noted and are put on a path of higher learning that the others are not. This would give mose high level school administrators in America caniption fits to even suggest this. We would have riots in our streets. I fear we are not long for the 1st world. 

Bob S






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