If I created my own school, what would it be like? Picture something like this:
1. The school has two goals: to (a) prepare students for independent adult life, and (b) give them a fun childhood.
2. Pursuant to 1(a), all students do at least 90 minutes of math every day. Most high-status jobs require good math skills, and that’s unlikely to change. So even if you don’t enjoy math, I insist on it.
3. Pursuant to 1(b), this is a traditional face-to-face school, where kids talk and play together. Without masks. Since I envision a very small school (5-15 students total) I deem the risk acceptable.
4. I admit only highly-motivated high school students, and extremely highly-motivated younger students. My pedagogical approach only works well for kids who are eager to learn. And teaching kids who aren’t eager to learn works poorly for me.
5. All students have a detailed schedule, for my benefit as well as theirs. Younger students have a schedule handed down to them; as they advance, they gradually take over their own scheduling. I revise these schedules as more information about students’ performance and interests arrives.
6. Every student gets personal feedback with their math every day. If they’re struggling, they get extra practice. If they’re excelling, they move on to the next level.
7. The rest of the curriculum depends on the student. All students spend ample time reading and writing, but what they read and write is up to them. When the student has a good draft of a writing project, they get personal feedback on content, style, spelling, and grammar.
8. General rule: If students are struggling with their work, they start by googling. If that doesn’t work, they ask more knowledgeable students. If that doesn’t work, they ask me during standard feedback time.
9. I give students near-zero homework – and parents no work of any kind. And no lame projects. Instead, we do the real thing. If you want to learn Spanish, you don’t make an English-language poster on Ecuador. You do daily language immersion. ¡No inglés!
10. I supply all textbooks. They’ll often be a few editions old because that cuts costs by 90%+ with near-zero learning loss.
11. For structure and external certification, all students train for at least one high-quality standardized test. I am especially fond of the Advanced Placement tests; my older sons took their first in 7th-grade, and completed thirteen APs each by the end of 11th grade.
12. After mastering tested material, students spend at least a month on full-time test prep. During this time, I give students next-day feedback on their performance, especially essays. I fully support “teaching to the test” when the test is a well-crafted effort to measure deep understanding of the subject. See e.g. all of the Advanced Placement tests in history.
13. Philosophically, my school focuses on mastery of intellectually demanding material. “Mastery” means you can apply the material creatively in new contexts – and explain it well to others.
14. At the same time, my school studiously avoids the latest moral fads and moral panics, and require politeness and calm. I tell my students the same thing I tell my kids: be friendly and don’t be touchy.
15. Do I merely replace mainstream indoctrination with my own? The typical observer would probably say so, but they’d be wrong. Yes, I freely share my controversial views when they’re germane. But I also carefully explain the normal view, my critique of the normal view, the normal view’s response, and so on. And I do so without the moral blackmail of, “You’re a benighted soul if you disagree” or the obtuse, “What do you mean, you disagree?”
16. I raise my kids without Social Desirability Bias. I do not respond to earnest questions with sugarcoated answers. I do not parrot fashionable platitudes. I either speak the plain truth or tell them, “Ask me when you’re older.” I treat all my students the same way.
How much demand would there be for such a school? Probably not much, but I wouldn’t want more than fifteen students anyway…
P.S. To repeat, I am only toying with the idea of sharing my educational model with non-family members. But if you are a prospective customer, please email me.
READER COMMENTS
Jess Riedel
Sep 1 2020 at 11:31am
I think this is missing something: the students need access to someone who actually knows (and loves) academic subjects deeply. For the most part, this means PhD holders, which are expensive to emply. Previously you have written about bringing your kids to meet professors, but occasionally meeting seems not nearly as good as being routinely taught by. Hiring grad student tutors might be economical though.
lloyd cohen
Sep 2 2020 at 5:01pm
I will demur from your implication that holding a Ph.D. is either a necessary or sufficient signal that a teacher has a love and understanding of the relevant subject matter. In my experience there is a minimal or null relationship in pre-university education. What is required is that those who hire teachers care immensely and have the judgment to chose teachers well. That I have found is often absent.
Barry Cotter
Sep 1 2020 at 11:42am
Which AP treats did your elder sons do? If you’re looking into doing other good externally marked tests I suggest the English (and Welsh, Northern Irish) A Levels. You could also look at EdX’s MicroMaster’s, which vary from a quarter to half of a Master’s degree. If their Math is superb there’s a linear, modular Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering on Coursera for ~$20,000. Each individual course is $700. No entrance requirements of any kind. https://www.coursera.org/degrees/msee-boulder
Emile Hatem
Sep 1 2020 at 9:53pm
Cool idea. One benefit of AP tests is that US colleges are familiar with them and trust them, so they help get into US colleges.
Julia Wise
Sep 6 2020 at 9:08pm
With enough APs you can graduate college early – my sister in law did this so she could save the tuition and start med school sooner.
Ivan
Sep 1 2020 at 12:17pm
A good list!
As noted in The Case Against Education, information retention is a major issue in education. It may even be the largest issue. I do not see much use in teaching information that is not retained unless it is very enjoyable to learn.
If I were in charge, I would say that whatever is taught should be retained. If I test students over something, they should be able to know it 5 years down the road as well. I would try to implement spaced repetition techniques and use software like Supermemo and Anki.
Manfred
Sep 1 2020 at 12:34pm
I am impressed that you know that in Spanish the upward and downward exclamation points are used… 🙂 (unlike in English, which is only the downward one).
But “No inglés” is not correct.
The correct form is “Nada de inglés”.
Manfred
Sep 1 2020 at 12:36pm
I like your ideal school.
But I think you will run into issues in point #4.
Another issue is, how are you going to finance it?
RPLong
Sep 1 2020 at 2:28pm
It sounds great. At the very least, I’d like to read a Caplan-penned book about how he successfully homeschooled his children. I know he’s written a few blog posts on it, but more thorough details would be a great service to me. Hurry – my oldest child is in first grade!
Speed
Sep 1 2020 at 3:14pm
Bryan Caplan wrote, “4. I admit only highly-motivated high school students, and extremely highly-motivated younger students.”
How do you measure motivation and what is the definition of highly-motivated?
Jose Pablo
Sep 1 2020 at 5:54pm
When you see it you know it. At the school, at the working place and with your fiancé(e).
High motivation (particularly the “self-motivation” kind) is pretty easy to recognize.
Speed
Sep 2 2020 at 7:43pm
“The phrase “I know it when I see it” is a colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it#
So your answer is, “I don’t know” which is why I asked Bryan Caplan the question. I also don’t know but I suspect he has some insight here.
Bryan?
Jose Pablo
Sep 1 2020 at 6:01pm
Point 16 “avoiding social desirability bias” could free half of the time spent in the actual schools.
Most teachers would run out of things to say if this rule was strictly enforced.
Elijah
Sep 2 2020 at 12:06pm
This is sadly very true. Even beyond settings with a top-down orthodoxy, I am depressed by how much of what people say in casual conversation is essentially the same fare.
Emile Hatem
Sep 1 2020 at 10:06pm
How much math would you teach to a student for whom that subject wasn’t their favorite? (Doesn’t dislike it, but not enthused by it). I guess most of your potential students would go through AP Calc, since most top students can get that far, even if they don’t like it.
JFA
Sep 2 2020 at 7:58am
I’d send my kids to that school.
nobody.really
Sep 2 2020 at 11:04am
I’d like to hear more about this. What math skills specifically? I expect many people have seen the T-shirt that says, “The sun has set on yet another day when I failed to find a use for calculus.”
I know a number of people in the health profession. Few employ any particular math skills in their daily work. Even prescribing doses is reduced to a computerized formula.
Programmers may have math instincts–but do they actually calculate equations and do math proofs?
Do accountants require advanced math skills beyond arithmetic?
The chief use I have made of my math education was to impress admissions officers (and perhaps human resource people). And, ok, and I used some trigonometry in designing my D&D castle (locating walls and turrets to enable giant crossbows to reposition and fire without hitting the defenses, etc. But then I replaced the crossbows with trebuchets).
Yes, people need to work with telecommunications. In practice, this means that MANY need to learn to use a phone and navigate the internet; FEW need to learn to design routers. I suspect the need for math follows a similar pattern.
Taylor Davidson
Sep 2 2020 at 3:27pm
You’ve got a nice start to a well specified value proposition there but one critical component you’re missing is the cost side.
Have you considered your pricing model?
Where do we email you for more information?
Taylor Davidson
Sep 2 2020 at 3:42pm
Re: #16
There is a perfectly rational purpose for some absolutist language that is not technically accurate. It is often an efficient mechanism by which to close down further discussion.
Nuance is quite commonly an inefficient means of communication, apt to generate additional debate or argument, which carry time/effort costs themselves.
So when you say the truth is “It’s too costly for me” I would counter that often speaking with that precision and nuance is too costly for *me* due to the predictable extension of the discussion that choice will entail.
This is unfortunately true in lots of arenas of life (economics, politics, business, etc). I would love to trust that I can give people precisely honest answers and they will engage with those answers charitably and efficiently, but the people who will are uncommon enough as to not be a reasonable expectation in uncertain social environments.
Scott G
Sep 5 2020 at 10:08am
Thanks for sharing this Bryan. Here’s my vote for you starting a regular daily or weekly post on your experiences with the school. Would be a great benefit to those of us who want to start our own school or just want to live vicariously through you.
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