<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I have no way of discussing a math program with you, but what Khan has seems great to me as you describe it. But do you think, say, philosophy can be taught without teachers? </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">The ideal teaching of that and many other courses is face to face with the teacher - one on one. That way the teacher can assess the student's level and start there, bringing in just the right philosopher for support of the ideas or contrast. This is the way I taught Personality. If all I wanted to do was for the students to regurgitate each theory's ideas, a teacher would not have been necessary. This is far from my idea of quality teaching and learning.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Please know that in no way am I arguing with what Khan is doing or trying to do. I am in full support. I just want to add that there are some things that for the nonce, cannot be taught that way. Through high school for many subjects? Good. But maybe not in assessing the importance of Darwin or Shelley. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">I suppose in a way I am reacting against the loss of the profession of teachers. Well, not loss per se, but changes that take the live teacher out of the equation. I have picked cotton and know that there are much better ways. But ways of teaching some things that leave out live teachers is abhorrent to me even if it doesn't affect me at all. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, May 15, 2019 at 11:31 AM <<a href="mailto:spike@rainier66.com">spike@rainier66.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US"><div class="gmail-m_-7683006923479940611WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>William Flynn Wallace<br><br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] dead weight<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16pt">>>…I am astonished it took so long to get good educational curricula online, but here it is.</span><u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16pt"> spike</span><u></u><u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"">>…<span style="color:black">Who doesn't require a teacher? Someone who is learning facts. </span>…<span style="color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Hmmm, well really what Khan Academy does best is to teach skills and techniques.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Let’s take math, since that tends to be objectively measurable. Khan started making videos explaining how to do certain techniques. Eventually experts in the field began recognizing the value of what he was doing, and helped round out the curriculum, some contributing videos on some particular skill or technique they thought Sal didn’t explain adequately.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Eventually a complete math curriculum evolved in which all the identifiable discrete skills in a typical primary mathematics education up through calculus and including elementary differential equations (typical sophomore-level engineering math curriculum) was presented in a collection of discrete skills, which has a definite finite number. The number of discrete skills from addition to differential equations is…<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">1497<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">OK, Sal Khan claims there are 1497 discrete mathematical skills that should take a prole from addition thru differential equations.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">Each of those discrete skills has four levels of mastery, so to get all that, a prole would need to achieve a total of 5988 level-up assessments. This becomes a clear and distinct goal for the highly-motivated student.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">My unapologetic claim is this: any student who does all that will be a student who can hurl back anything any high school math class will throw at her, rip through it like a hot chainsaw through butter. She will scarcely break a sweat. She will soar with the eagles on the math SAT.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">The fun part: those 1497 discrete skills are grouped as a “mission” called World of Math. But… there are other math classes offered in Khan Academy beyond the World of Math, and they too are excellent. Sal Khan doesn’t teach those generally. He gets guys who really really know their stuff, such as the excellent engaging Grant Sanderson. Any sufficiently Grant-like mathematician is indistinguishable from god. You gotta check out this guy’s work, oh my.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">BillW, what you are pointing out is that we don’t know how to measure subjective areas of knowledge. All we know how to measure are objective fields of study.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">I don’t know the answer to that one. I am no closer now than I was several years ago. Suggestions welcome, but in the meantime, check out Grant Sanderson.<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">spike<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>
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