I agree. At The Socratic Experience, college bound STEM students should take as much math as possible. But many of our creative students only do the two years required math in high school for the accredited diploma. Those who choose the non-accredited path don't even need to do that.
John Mackey, founder and long time CEO of Whole Foods Market, is a college dropout who said all the math he needed to grow Whole Foods into a Fortune 500 company he learned in middle school.
Yes, pretty much. There is a case that entrepreneurial students should also learn finance, and occasionally some other specialized routes may be appropriate, but as a simple statement I agree with the way you put it.
As you know Michael, I'm a big fan of this model and I love seeing the gains of directed attention quantified like this. I recently attended a math training program put on by Paul Zeitz, which coincided with my interest in math circles for my kids (although hard to create in person where I am). It offered what I think is a really cool model for providing socratic style investigation in math, one which could sustain attention for a long time and invite a lot more play into math.
One aspect of your students success that I see but which is a little less explicit in your write-up of this is the community and expectations which a good socratic dialogue (or even a bohmian dialogue which I think is pretty similar) requires. The fact that students learn to engage deeply with peers of similar caliber and engagement feels just as important to me (and is maybe the weakest point of what I think I'm doing with my kids).
You are correct, this is very true, "engage deeply with peers of similar caliber and engagement feels just as important to me." I write about it elsewhere, and will write about it again.
And, of course, our programs are available part-time to supplement what you are doing - a lot of homeschooling families join our program just for the Socratic Humanities precisely because they can't replicate the peer interaction.
Why so much emphasis on math? What is the benefit for an average person beyond basic geometry and algebra?
I agree. At The Socratic Experience, college bound STEM students should take as much math as possible. But many of our creative students only do the two years required math in high school for the accredited diploma. Those who choose the non-accredited path don't even need to do that.
John Mackey, founder and long time CEO of Whole Foods Market, is a college dropout who said all the math he needed to grow Whole Foods into a Fortune 500 company he learned in middle school.
So… most students should get real good and confident in basic math, and stem bound should get as much as possible. I would agree.
Yes, pretty much. There is a case that entrepreneurial students should also learn finance, and occasionally some other specialized routes may be appropriate, but as a simple statement I agree with the way you put it.
As you know Michael, I'm a big fan of this model and I love seeing the gains of directed attention quantified like this. I recently attended a math training program put on by Paul Zeitz, which coincided with my interest in math circles for my kids (although hard to create in person where I am). It offered what I think is a really cool model for providing socratic style investigation in math, one which could sustain attention for a long time and invite a lot more play into math.
One aspect of your students success that I see but which is a little less explicit in your write-up of this is the community and expectations which a good socratic dialogue (or even a bohmian dialogue which I think is pretty similar) requires. The fact that students learn to engage deeply with peers of similar caliber and engagement feels just as important to me (and is maybe the weakest point of what I think I'm doing with my kids).
Great write up (as always). Thanks for sharing.
You are correct, this is very true, "engage deeply with peers of similar caliber and engagement feels just as important to me." I write about it elsewhere, and will write about it again.
And, of course, our programs are available part-time to supplement what you are doing - a lot of homeschooling families join our program just for the Socratic Humanities precisely because they can't replicate the peer interaction.