Young children would rather explore than get rewards • Hacker News Board

Re: Young children would rather explore than get rewards

#241

Post by weatherman2 » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 12:14 PM UTC

mam2 wrote: post #231

blobbers wrote: post #193

Isn't this the children solving the multi armed bandit problem? In a child's mind, they haven't yet fully decided how things behave and react, so they are willing to try things to see if they've changed (because in fact often they do in their own mental models, as well as the resolution of those models. If you think of it as a regression tree, their models start out fairly shallow and then slowly get deeper as they a…

Yes its called "simulated annealing for your own life". In 3 days hacker news will discover GANs and make a shocking headline like "challenges and adversity makes you better / stronger". #mindblown

I'm going to read my children a picture book titled "Scraggles the Puppy Explores the Forest of Simulated Annealing."

Re: Young children would rather explore than get rewards

#242

Post by jdmichal » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 12:44 PM UTC

jariel wrote: post #218

jdmichal wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The forced cadence of certain topics actually does have a part to play. Imagine if you could have skipped all those English classes back then. Guess what? You would be learning it all right now! Just like you're _re_learning it right now. Why? Because you now have intrinsic motivation to learn it. Having entirely skipped it, you might even have realized a lot sooner the actual need instead of limping along with whate…

So I agree about the 'cadence' bit. But this: " Imagine if you could have skipped all those English classes back then. Guess what? You would be learning it all right now!" No, no way. It's a total misunderstanding of education to contemplate this. Education is not 'some facts and things you learn that you may use later'. Education at HS level is much more fundamental than that, particularly English. It's about commun…

I agree with you. I did intend for that as a thought experiment, but I didn't make that clear. However, the part about teaching the need before the material and leaving time for exploration I'm very serious about. I think it's the biggest change we could make to the system without completely breaking the current structure of it.

Re: Young children would rather explore than get rewards

#243

Post by cameronbrown » Fri, Aug 14, 2020, 9:59 PM UTC

yellowapple wrote: post #236

cameronbrown wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your university does not define you. Plenty of people go to a crap university, yet can still be the top of their field one day.

It's easy to say that now , we being adults long out of high school. Do you really expect a high schooler to understand that? I sure as hell didn't back then (my guidance counselor strongarmed me into a curriculum specifically around meeting UC and CSU requirements, despite me having nowhere near the GPA to get into any such school), and thus admission into a 4-year university was an extrinsic motivator that seemed u…

Well, I only left high school last year... I don't think it's impossible to at least guess this. I think I got very lucky in realising that the school's goals (push me to university) were not aligned with my own.

Re: Young children would rather explore than get rewards

#244

Post by em-bee » Sat, Aug 15, 2020, 7:01 AM UTC

munificent wrote: post #196

macspoofing wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where I find this alarmingly true is when outcome/results are negative (usually ending in pain) Pain is a very good teacher. Letting children hurt themselves and learn from that (within reason, obviously) is not a bad thing.

I was hanging out with a friend who is also parent. As happens pretty often, the kids are all off somewhere else getting into trouble. Eventually, one starts wailing. My friend looks at me and says, "Ah, the sound of learning." I always tell my wife is that my goal is not to keep the kids from getting hurt, just to keep them from getting maimed. It's not just that pain is a good teacher, though it is. There is an eve…

the kids are all off somewhere else getting into trouble. Eventually, one starts wailing. My friend looks at me and says, "Ah, the sound of learning."

i am stealing that one