Being an autididact is anti-mimetic in itself because the force driving the learning path is one’s interest and desire generated by the material itself, not a pre-determined path constructed by people who want to produce a certain kind of ‘product’ (in the American education system, for example, that used to be good industrial workers; now it’s shi... See more

Our bar should focus primarily on effort and improvement, not performance. Kids’ capacities differ, and they change across time and across subjects. If you keep the effort bar high then good school choices make themselves reasonably clear. For one student that might be Princeton, and for another it might be a community college. Both of these option

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The astute American commentator on education Neil Postman argued compellingly for a curriculum built around what he called ‘the three As’ (as distinct from the three Rs): astronomy, archaeology, and anthropology. Astronomy, favourite of the Greeks, would cultivate in the young a sense of awe, interdependence, and global responsibility. Archaeology

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