HomeSchooling and Alternative Schools Vs. Mainstream Schools

It's not mainstream but homeschooling exists in India.
1) Alternative Schools : Many parents choose safer option of "Alternative Schools" which merge concepts of "free-form, friendly" aspects of home-schooling with those of mainstream schools.
2) Home Schooling : Other parents teach kids at home and might choose to follow mainstream board curriculums like IGCSE, NIOS, CBSE etc.

Frequently asked questions about Home Schooling : F A Q s - Alternative Education India

1) Swashikshan : Alternative Education India
2) Alternative Education in India Mailing Lists : Alternative Education India
3) Indian Home Schooling website for local and national groups : http://indiahomeschoolers.ning.com
4) Bangalore google group for discussing Home Schooling : Google Groups.

See also : Homeschooling and alternative education in India

Goal of Learning - Grades, Learning, Understanding, Skill, Wealth and Power

Grades => Learning => Understanding => Skill => Wealth => Power

A) Grades :

If attendance was enough you wouldn't be asking this question.
You can attend classes and be none-the-wiser for hours spent.
Because this is Second-Hand-Knowledge.

If it's just about passing the exams you need to worry about
"Can I answer the question on the exam and get past the examiner with pass/good marks?" That's ALL!!

If one is low enough on the educational scale one can always find cram-guides or notes to mug-up. They solve the problem of getting marks. If that's all you need, use them and be happy.

However if that is NOT enough and you want to follow the "famous scientists and entrepreneurs" then you need to at least know the following.
One is the technical stream, the other is the business stream!!

B) Learning:

The famous scientists and entrepreneurs that you talk about didn't restrict themselves to the safety of being lead by a teacher alone. They went out of their way "on the path less trodden". And that made all the difference!!

Learning with "The Five Ws and One H" i.e. Who, What, When, Where, Why and How : Five Ws
This small poem is a good way to remember them:
"I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who."

C) Understanding:

Out of this What, How and Why in order of complexity are the most important questions in technical education.
a) A Beginner is normally concerned with "What and How"
b) Intermediate deals with small groups of "What, How and a bit of Why"
c) Advanced sees all 3 in action in the mind's eye esp. the Why and How flowing through the Whats in a local system as well as it's environment.

How broad/deep is your understanding of the topic?
Can you see internal and external relations between things?

Beginner to Master level. Normally we just study mostly theoretical aspects in our standard books.
a) Do you refer other better books?
b) Are you able to seek out answers for your own questions?
c) Are you able to find people who are better than you and can help you find the answers?

For example to take a concrete example of mechanical engineering :
1) Could you describe an internal combustion engine?
2) Do you understand what each part does and relation between things?
3) Could you make a simple and small working model of an engine using scrap parts?

D) Skill:

Skill is the capacity to DO something useful.
Normally it is more than just understanding.
It is the ability to Solve Problems and come up with Solutions.

Engineering:
1) Could you take the Engine apart?
2) Could you put it back together again?
3) Could you come up with a better design?
4) Do you know enough about different design options to choose a better configuration for a given circumstance?

Scientists:
1) Could you use a totally new way of making engines?
2) Could you create this technology from idea to reality via research?
3) Could you make it easy/cheap to manufacture by engineers?

E) Wealth:

Power is the capacity to Use the Skill and Barter it for something else.

Entrepreneur:
0) Understanding Demand and Supply. If there is no demand create it!!
1) Can you get a team of skilled scientists/engineers to do this for you?
2) Can you patent and copyright the process
3) Can you manufacture it?
4) Can you market it and get market share?
5) Can you become the market leader in this new technology?
6) Can you just license it to others and earn royalty using only Intellectual Property i.e. patents?

This requires team-work between disparate people - scientists, engineers, foundry-workers, supervisors, managers, marketing & sales people and lawyers and interacting with government regulations.

F) Power:

If you want Power then get into Politics which is the art of manipulating people. The most valuable resource of all!! :-D

Note : Wealth and Power need not come from an academic education since they are more about managing and manipulating People. So you can directly go through on-the-job training without necessity for education. Basic education helps to an extent I guess but is not a pre-condition.

The Secret Life of the Brain Series

PBS - The Secret Life of the Brain (series) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfCffnjfo3w&list=PLWftYLDEUu2942CTtYeZvY1SMP_rIuU9d

1. Baby's Brain

   a) Tube formation (base-spine, top-brain)
   b) Migration of neurons using Glial cells
   c) Programming of neurons about ultimate location.
   d) Till term first the pinging connections, followed by reinforcement, pruning and strengthening connections.
   e) Stimulus Inputs from environment fine-tune basic hardware platform to higher and higher end-formation within 2-3 months.
   f) Activation of even 10 minutes can utilize pathways laid down earlier as in cataract removal.
   g) ?? One year of taping good eye may be enough to compensate for early loss of stimulus ??

2. Child's Brain

3. Teenage Brain

4. Adult Brain

5. Aging Brain

Why do so many computer-based Educational sites suck?

1) They just try to digitize existing content by copy-pasting it onto their website. No qualitative change at all.
2) Just having hyperlinks or images/videos doesn't make it a better content. 

a) Does the content convey a clear, concise, correct, accurate, memorable meaning to it's audience?
b) Is there a feedback mechanism like comments which make the content better over time?
c) Does it get updated?
d) Does it give the sources of the information so as to allow follow-up into more depth/breadth?

Seems to me like a wiki (better than wikipedia) is the best way to achieve this as of now.

=======

Just tried a sample article from this "educational site" for 9-14 years called youngzine.org in a field in which I have some interest if not expertise : The Origin Of Language
The article was so dumbed down and irrelevant that I wonder why they bother putting that stuff online at all...

And  this is a topic they could come across on TV say Discovery, NGC, PBS etc and understand at least  some of it with question/answers from a parent or elder sibling.


Sound box:
There is a brief mention of evolution of larynx but no mention of impact of standing upright and change in angle of vocal system from that of apes.

No mention of changes in the parts of brain which is responsible for speech. A young person might be better off searching youtube for videos on the topic than relying on the site.

Though not designed for young people with potentially "short attention spans" look at the intuitiveness at this video on how consonants are categorised in Sanskrit : http://youtu.be/2UfCGrvfmOY?t=10m34s

How about this video I found on youtube in a matter of seconds : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLm0wZAWplc

Note : These videos or parts of them may/may not be created for young viewers BUT surely a bit of constant work in this area by the article authors should result in better results than mine. At the very least a few vetted clips might be better than what's available.

In fact this part of the main video talks about the evolution and origin of much of what we consider as Human Speech : http://youtu.be/29u6XRY51Bk?t=35m1s

"Rungli, Rungliot" - Thus far and no farther

Q) How much exposure to technology is good for kids?

This is a very subjective question Too much or Too little being relative answers by definition. So there is no "Right" answer, only a subjective one.

Natural Growth:
As long as you don't hinder the natural growth of the child and don't get him/her addicted to games you're ok.
+ Milestones
+ Phases of growth
+ Maturity
+ Neuro-motor skills
Use only natural things they can touch, feel. Things with texture, smell, taste instead of virtual paintings.

However this lacks sensory touch, feel, smell and taste.
This will severely impact development of these areas of the brain.
So let them run and play. Nature designed play for a very very very important reason.

Also let them find their own toys from your household instead of store bought toys. Nature meant children to learn to play with things from their surroundings so they would be expert at using them later on. No wonder babies play with remotes and smart-phones. They're just imitating you.


Extra-curricular activities
In addition to natural activities and things you can also include a diet of videos.
Videos are among the best resources for children to see and hear things (the major senses).
DIY videos are even better as you get to add the missing components and adapt and improvise with your local materials.
Art
Pottery
Craft
Drawing
Painting
DIY Science
Origami Math

Curricular activities:
Videos on things connected with curriculum can be used to make things come alive from the textbook. It also connects the abstract with the concrete and shows links between things we'd miss otherwise.
My niece was studying a chapter on Filtering etc. when I suggested the link to Gold Panning as being a solid-liquid filtration process.

Good uses vs. Bad uses :
Like the internet there are good and bad uses of technology. It is upto you to find interesting, good things and encourage the child to learn good things.

You need to define good stuff as per your views. Some people try to cram adult-level stuff into young kid's brains thinking they're some kind of sponge.

Never Let your Schooling Interfere with your Education - Schooling vs. Education

Note : This post was triggered off by my answers on a quora.com question on math : http://www.quora.com/Has-US-culture-created-a-self-fulfilling-prophecy-that-math-and-science-are-hard-to-learn
Since I've a lot more thoughts on the subject will update as and when they occur to me here.


Q) Why are Math and Science so hard to learn?





"Never Let your Schooling Interfere with your Education" - Mark Twain
Seems like a typical "Nature vs. Nurture" problem.
Maybe it's time we started thinking more positively instead with "Nature AND Nurture" i.e. using the best of Natural and Environmental inputs possible together.

Environmental Factors

Just need to look at successful people (and unsuccessful ones) and figure out the factors involved. What made the difference? Esp. if the person was not "mathsy" at first but then somehow got to be good at maths.

I don't think country alone has everything to do with it.
Teaching/Learning style match or mismatch has more to do with it.
The amount of effort the parent/student puts in is also very important.
How much learning/education is valued at home and insisted upon is also a definite factor.

One Size Fits ALL

“Everybody  is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it  will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” ― Albert  Einstein

Though the quote above seems to accentuate the myth that Maths is only for "mathsy-people", it does give an idea that differences exist among students. Differences in learning style, mental modelling etc.

1) 100s of years of mathematical discovery has to be crammed into a few  years. That too with neither the need nor the symbolic learning style  for most kids. Effects speak for themselves
 
2) Notation and symbols don't come naturally to most people. 2 mathematicians working on calculus came up with different notations. The "better" notation won out. So notation is not the same as knowledge or meaning. Need to concretize the problem/solution in different ways to get the necessity and the invention through to the students.

George Polya has written a book on Teaching Mathematics by "Discovery" and on how to train Math teachers.

3) Much of Mathematics was invented/discovered while trying to solve real-life problems. What students get is the dessicated extract. Time to put the juice back into Math. People always learn better when they have a need to use it in a real life situation. See : http://learnersparadise.blogspot.com/2010/11/teach-yourself-mathematics-in-intuitive.html

I  had an amazing math teacher who helped me see the beauty behind the notation. He was working on his PHD thesis on facial recognition using wavelet transforms. The formulae never clicked with him until his guide advised him to learn from applications of wavelet transforms in Economics. They used Graphs etc. to explain the basis/logic of the topic. This suited the natural learning style of my teacher and he could bridge the gap between the formulae and the mental model constructed from the graphs.

"Necessity is the mother of Invention". If a student feels engaged and more motivated when it comes to school/college math the results will follow.

1) Applied mathematics and understanding the reasoning behind it will attract more students. This increases the pool of students who like mathematics.

2) Theorem proving also has it's own heuristics as captured so nicely by George Polya in his books. He talks about "discovering" the reasoning behind the math and how expert mathematicians work out the problem by a mix of intuition, trial-and-error and experience.

3) Math has huge applications in Science and Technology. Having a far larger pool of interested students will definitely be a win-win situation ANY which way you look at it.

Nature - I Want it My WAY

It's rather surprising that I didn't find much information being mentioned here on advances in Cognitive Science esp.
a) Multiple Intelligence (Interacting with the world in different ways)
b) Learning Style (Input Preferences - visual, auditory, kineaesthetic)
c) Creativity in engaging the students

Basically it's about being right-handed in a left-handed world or vice-versa. If the way-you-think-and-learn is not the way-you're-taught of course you're not gonna get it!!

Garbage-In, Garbage-Out. If you enter data into a computer in an incorrect "data-format" it's no wonder if it is rejected.

Somebody may like abstract symbolic formulae and pick those up very fast. Someone else may like to hear/visualise the problem. Someone else may like to work with their hands i.e. a concrete model of the problem.

Example :
1) Watson and Crick finally solved the problem of DNA structure using a ball and stick model to match the scant x-ray diffraction data!! One was very hands-on, the other very knowledge/math oriented. BOTH people contributed to solving different parts of the problem and won a Nobel Prize!!
2) Richard Feynman "invented" his own geometry and came up with his own symbols and notation. From his book accounts he was both a Visual person and a hands-on person. He repaired radios and learnt Ham Radio with his father.

Nurture - "Form must follow function"

What, is the purpose of math/science education? Short answer - Problem solving.

To enable the student to identify and analyse the problem, choose from multiple options and choose the best option. Also ability to adapt problem or solution as per circumstances.

Unfortunately many times the goal/"function" is assumed to be getting through syllabus by the teacher. So the "form" is that seen in the book. Teacher may be stuck in his/her own way of thinking and may not try/know enough about student's way of thinking.

So if "function" is to convey meaning to a student the "form" of the teaching must adapt to student i.e. learning-style, interests/hobbies, pre-existing knowledge from his her background, questions etc.

So teacher must really understand the subject.
Teacher must also understand the way the student thinks.
And must be able to customize the message in the form the student will most readily accept and process it.
Reading body language and testing the understanding would help the teacher ensure that the student doesn't just nod the head but is really enthused with the understanding of the topic and it's implications in the student's life.

Mastery - Learning is about Connections

The more connections you make between something new and something old the better you learn it. The more emotion is associated with learning the more firmly it is anchored in your memory.

Expertise

Having breadth and depth of knowledge and skill in using that knowledge in real-life or at work is expertise.

Experts think differently when compared to Novice or Intermediate learners. They've already mapped out most things and are able to quickly match the problem characteristics with solution characteristics. They're not fooled by surface similarities and see the underlying forces at work. They hence are able to choose right/better answers. They also have more options which they can quickly scan for possible solutions.