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Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

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Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#11

Post by amarkumar81 »

smorrow wrote: post #10
CityOfThrowaway wrote: post #4

Really cool! A lot of parents had success putting their kids into a learning pod during COVID and it looks like you’re building formal structure around this type of thing. I love that you’re working on it. If you can figure out how to make this work, the real power of the internet can be unleashed on education… and really just in the nick of time. Some questions for you: 1. How do you choose the pods? What happens if…

You don't need to "put" people places - they do that by themselves (and better than you can centrally plan - I know you don't want to hear that). You don't need to make them go on the internet either. And apparent "success", in the sense you mean it, isn't, either. It's just kicking the can down the road. Real progress would be the seemingly unproductive, a-month-for-every-year-in-school deschooling period like that…

I really appreciate your push for learning environments that don't constrain students and students can just be who they are. In other words, what are the absolutely minimum number of things that we insist on as rules, so that students feel the freedom to take ownership over the rest.

(And thanks for sharing that Sudbury example; I had never seen it before but I love the message.)

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#13

Post by lazyasciiart »

For when you don't want to send your kid to school but still need to send your kid somewhere all day with a bunch of kids to be supervised by someone else while they do schoolwork - but without the disadvantage of kids their age learning the same thing! Amazing.

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#14

Post by amarkumar81 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #13

For when you don't want to send your kid to school but still need to send your kid somewhere all day with a bunch of kids to be supervised by someone else while they do schoolwork - but without the disadvantage of kids their age learning the same thing! Amazing.

Thanks for your comment. COVID reminded us how important a school's role is in providing a safe place for students to be & learn (so that parents/guardians can work or otherwise support their households). You may have seen the data on COVID's disproportionate effect on women leaving the workforce to tend to childcare duties that would otherwise not have been present if schools were open.

For many online school families, they have struggled with this for years before COVID and will continue to struggle with it after; we are designing this program precisely to address this challenge.

I also wanted to address the last part of your comment: all kids of the same age learning the same thing is indeed a disadvantage of today's traditional education system. I hope you'll agree that there's nothing biological about 10 year olds needing to learn the exact same thing at the exact same time. Children proceed along unpredictable paths of learning at unpredictable paces and our jobs as educators (or in my case, as someone who supports educators) is to enable as much of that flexibility as possible for the children.

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#15

Post by spoonjim »

I like the concept but perhaps not your approach. What I see is that American public schooling has become more focused on the bottom decile student than the top decile student, and also focused on “equity” metrics that don’t serve the needs of the top students. So what I’d like to see is a physical place where top students who can work 2+ grades ahead get together and challenge each other intellectually, but in a more affordable way than private school.

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#16

Post by lazyasciiart »

amarkumar81 wrote: post #14
lazyasciiart wrote: post #13

For when you don't want to send your kid to school but still need to send your kid somewhere all day with a bunch of kids to be supervised by someone else while they do schoolwork - but without the disadvantage of kids their age learning the same thing! Amazing.

Thanks for your comment. COVID reminded us how important a school's role is in providing a safe place for students to be & learn (so that parents/guardians can work or otherwise support their households). You may have seen the data on COVID's disproportionate effect on women leaving the workforce to tend to childcare duties that would otherwise not have been present if schools were open. For many online school famili…

Those online school families should send their kids to school. The only good reasons for not doing so are ones that would also prevent them from going to your fake school.

And instead of an idiotic sneer about biology, perhaps you could share why you appear to have decided that "academic bonding", as you called it earlier, is so contemptible - and what you find so awful about kids being around others of the same age.

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#18

Post by j8hn »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #13

For when you don't want to send your kid to school but still need to send your kid somewhere all day with a bunch of kids to be supervised by someone else while they do schoolwork - but without the disadvantage of kids their age learning the same thing! Amazing.

Do snarky comments like this add to the discussion?

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#19

Post by amarkumar81 »

spoonjim wrote: post #15

I like the concept but perhaps not your approach. What I see is that American public schooling has become more focused on the bottom decile student than the top decile student, and also focused on “equity” metrics that don’t serve the needs of the top students. So what I’d like to see is a physical place where top students who can work 2+ grades ahead get together and challenge each other intellectually, but in a mor…

I can definitely understand your concern. Often, focus on equity can manifest as lowering the ceiling for all students, rather than lowering the floor so more students can access 'the room.'

In our pods, we have space for accelerated learners who want zero constraints on their progress (i.e., just let me go as fast as I want!). We do our best to match them with learners who are equally paced (so they may work together to challenge each other) AND those who may not be as accelerated (so they may learn to work with a variety of student profiles).

To continue the analogy from before, we are all about expanding the room so all types of learners can succeed.

Re: Launch HN: KaiPod Learning (YC S21) – A physical place for online schoolers

#20

Post by amarkumar81 »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #16
amarkumar81 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment. COVID reminded us how important a school's role is in providing a safe place for students to be & learn (so that parents/guardians can work or otherwise support their households). You may have seen the data on COVID's disproportionate effect on women leaving the workforce to tend to childcare duties that would otherwise not have been present if schools were open. For many online school famili…

Those online school families should send their kids to school. The only good reasons for not doing so are ones that would also prevent them from going to your fake school. And instead of an idiotic sneer about biology, perhaps you could share why you appear to have decided that "academic bonding", as you called it earlier, is so contemptible - and what you find so awful about kids being around others of the same age.

We may need to agree to disagree on the point about online school families. As a principle, I try not to judge any parents' choices on what school they select for their children. Education is an incredibly complex issue and we should all strive for all parents to make informed decisions about their families.

Online school families, as a particular example, have a wide variety of needs that draw them to the model of learning (e.g., a child being medically homebound; a child who practices/trains for competitive sports or arts; or a child who desires flexibility in where, when, and how fast they work on their academic courses).

The point about academic bonding is that students in any one of our learning pods will be from a range of ages (generally no more than 3 years apart at most), given the freedom to work on different subjects at the same time, and encouraged to work at whatever pace is best for them. In other words, I agree with you that academic bonding is a really good thing, but it is just hard for us to nurture given the flexibility inherent in our model. Therefore, we take extra care to make sure that the students build relationships over the other parts of the pod experience.

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