31–40 of 196 posts
A truly sad story.
Article did mention? "But on a hot day last June, at nearby Newcastle Reservoir, Kevin drowned in a kayaking accident at a friend’s birthday party." Article is worth reading. I think the title is pretty accurate, assuming the details are true.
So, as a European I read: mormon paper (Deseret...) hails parents who made their child work their farm. Because reading things like: > His spelling and grammar lagged behind grade level. He consistently misspelled the word “business,” and stumbled over the pronunciation of simple words. doesn't really spell hidden genius of the 21st century but probably describes millions of peasants in Europe during the middle-ages.…
Kid sounded like an ultra capitalistic incarnation of Von Neumann. I suppose growing up dirt poor does that to a person.
He has nothing to do with Von Neumann, a sophisticated intelllectual and the last polymath who was all about vanity and avoiding physical work.
I would imagine this kid was on a similar level of genius, but seemingly more interested in making as much money as humanly possible instead.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poor kid, the family are basically gimping his start in life by a decade... it's outright abuse
What a peculiar word to use. And, I actually disagree in this specific case. This kid is a statistical outlier to a degree I'm unwilling to even guess at. It's the kids around and below average who are hurt the most by a lack of structured education.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Poor kid, the family are basically gimping his start in life by a decade... it's outright abuse
The preponderance of evidence suggests that schooling has essentially zero impact on adult outcomes until around middle/high school. Most public schools are clearly more abusive than simply not subjecting your children to the standard industrial schooling regimen.
Especially, what my father explained to me (he directed projects and extracurricular 'homework help' (+ free food) for kids in the poor neighborhood of my city at the time) was that the most important for success in school was parental implication, and that if you compared kids in 'regular' school with present and interested parents (often children of teachers, or children with one stay at home parent and few siblings) to kids in 'special school' (Montessori at the time i think), there was no practical difference on their success later. He told us his job was to try his best to have his street educators bridge the gap between parents and school, and if it wasn't possible, to offer a more collective and affirmative way of learning/doing in his extracurricular center.
(weird translation, sorry if it isn't understandable, there is a lot of specific vocabulary i tried to simplify then translate).
It was only his impression, but I've worked with children from my 14th birthday to my 25th, and my personal experience (i taught science through experiment with an association both at public schools and at summer camps) tends to confirm that what's really matter in engagement from the parents.
Parents, teach your kids to swim. If you know children whose parents can't do this, insist on doing it for them.
Also, if you can’t swim, don’t be embarrassed! A lot of people can’t and honestly no one is judging you because you can’t swim. Go to your local pool and see if they offer adult classes and if not see if there is someone willing to teach you.
This story is especially clear and dramatic (and well documented) but I've often thought this happens in every generation: the people who lead (businesses and nations) when they are in their 40s and 50s are often people who boldly go out and discover the world while they are in their teens and 20s, and so they take on a bit more risk than the average citizen, and this includes physical risk (whether in travel or info…
You can pull edge cases like Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard, but even then he spent a lot of time in his 20s running his business.
So, as a European I read: mormon paper (Deseret...) hails parents who made their child work their farm. Because reading things like: > His spelling and grammar lagged behind grade level. He consistently misspelled the word “business,” and stumbled over the pronunciation of simple words. doesn't really spell hidden genius of the 21st century but probably describes millions of peasants in Europe during the middle-ages.…
So in your view, it sounds like being able to perfectly diagram a sentence is more important than understanding tax law?
What's being described isn't the ability to diagram a sentence, but to write above a certain minimum standard. That skill is certainly more important for the average person than understanding tax law as most jobs that would require you to know tax law have good writing skills as a pre-requisite.
As part of my previous work in education I did a lot of interventions for "unschooled" children in the Bay Area and can confirm the results of even well educated parents were almost uniformly disastrous.
There's a lot of value in:
1. Being well socialized
2. Having the standard set of skills that are a base requirement for being a white collar worker
If you're missing either of these (as most homeschooled kids are) it can be very difficult to find your way in the world.
Parents, teach your kids to swim. If you know children whose parents can't do this, insist on doing it for them.
Not only couldn't swim, wasn't wearing a life jacket.