

Shakespeare is Awful, Jefferson was a Rapist, and Pi is Useless - edw519
http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/08/shakespeare-is-awful-jefferson-was-a-rapist-and-pi-is-useless/

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elbrodeur
I get it, but he might be pretty upset when he finds his children falling in
love and fooling around with higher maths or literature. Or even, god forbid,
some useless skill like programming. I mean, when was the last time anyone
ever had to program anything?

Delight directed education is powerful, but failing to recognize that pi can
be delightful or that Shakespeare can make children excited seems to not be
the best first step.

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bediger
This is pretty typical Know Nothing American Populist anti-intellectualism.
This is just part of a constant undercurrent in US thought that's gone on for
the last 200 years. It surfaces every once in a while, causes some troubles by
ruining a few academic's careers, and then disappears.

But, even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while: "we all take it as an
obvious fact now that any history you learn in public school you have to
completely relearn as an adult in order to get the real history". This is only
too true. Altucher goes on to negate the insight behind this by bringing up
Charlemagne in some ignorant context.

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jaltucher
Good thing you didn't read the article then. I'm saying kids shouldn't be
bored out of their minds learning in a standardized, uniform environment that
ends up teaching at the lowest common denominator (not in every case but most
cases).

I'm saying give kids the full intellectual terrain of life to learn from. Put
them to their own devices instead of the devices of the state and you will be
surprised at what they learn.

I was fortunate enough to participate in programs at an early age that
emphasized this type of learning and it was amazing how quickly one could
learn algebra up to calculus if just given a few weeks of passionate learning
instead of rote testing. - James Altucher

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munin
all we need to do is teach kids how to open and run a business. that'll get
things turned around ...

