7 ms·

That approach (students working at their own pace) isn't very novel when you consider the fact that home-schooling has been around for a while.

Cushman 14y ago
And unless I'm mistaken, home-schooled children tend to consistently outperform their public-schooled peers in testing, yes?
- praxulus 14y ago
  I'm sure if you had that kind of student-teacher ratio in normal schools students would perform better anyway.
  - michaels0620 14y ago
    A big part of a child's success in school has to do with parental involvement. Home schooled children, almost by definition, have highly involved parents. It would be interesting to compare home schooled children with regular children whose parents are actively involved in their education to see how that matched up.
    - dpatru 14y ago
      Traditional schools are built on an industrial batch model where the goal is to get a certain percentage of the class to basic competency. So students are grouped in classes, taught for a semester, graded, and then moved on. The Khan and homeschool model, in contrast is the mastery model. Students are individually taught at their own pace. They are not graded and pushed on. Instead they keep learning a topic until they know it. In traditional classroom education, the learning is variable while the time to learn is constant. Khan makes the learning constant and varies the time. Some students will learn faster than others, but all students learn to a high standard. Khan is not just delivering a better classroom. He is offering a wholly different model of education.
  - bryanlarsen 14y ago
    To over-generalize: one-on-one teaching results in results that are about 2 standard deviations better than normal. Home schooling results are about 1 standard deviation better than normal.
  - sirmarksalot 14y ago
    This does not sound like an argument against home schooling. If it sounds unfair, that's kind of the point. My issue with home schooling is the lack of variety and specialization. With only one teacher, the child just isn't going to be exposed to as many viewpoints as they would in a traditional school setting.
    - candiedunicorn 14y ago
      Homeschooling and un-schooling are actually quite varied. Un-schooling, specifically, is usually very specialized. Take Erik Demaine, for instance. He is the youngest professor in MIT's history - he was un-schooled until he entered college at 12. He specialized in mathematics because he loved it. Homeschooling is still regulated by the state. Students must still pass certain tests, and often homeschoolers have a community of parents and children who get together to learn with each other at educational events geared specifically to their education. Both models have evolved, though they still have some cons. So, too, do public and private schools. Personally, I'd like to see us picking the best parts of various educational systems and putting them together.
saraid216 14y ago
Except that the notion of homeschooling is hugely co-opted by cultists who brainwash their kids. It's hard to get a serious dialogue on homeschooling going when most people equate it to a stand-in for Bible study and avoiding science education.
- billswift 14y ago
  I've heard this said often enough, but most of the homeschoolers I actually know or know of indirectly are pretty lefty or libertarian. Most Christian extremists go to little private schools which are scattered all over the place.
  - jasonrr 14y ago
    There is actual data to look at here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf Desire to provide religious or moral instruction is at the TOP of the list of reasons people homeschool.
    - Gormo 14y ago
      ...among those who answered the survey.
      - r00fus 14y ago
        This is a survey by the NHES, a government organization - do you think there is some reason for selection bias? Here is the survey's remark on their estimation methodology: "When applied to survey data, weights allow for the generation of national estimates from a sample of respondents. They also adjust for characteristics of the survey design, nonresponse, and noncoverage. However, biases may exist in the data if weighting procedures have not adequately adjusted for these issues. A large-scale bias study was conducted in conjunction with the 2007 data collection. Readers interested in the findings of the bias study, as well as detailed information on NHES survey methods, weighting, and response rates, can refer to the Data File User’s Manuals published online at http://nces.ed.gov/nhes http://nces.ed.gov/nhes ."

Cushman 14y ago

And unless I'm mistaken, home-schooled children tend to consistently outperform their public-schooled peers in testing, yes?

praxulus 14y ago
I'm sure if you had that kind of student-teacher ratio in normal schools students would perform better anyway.
- michaels0620 14y ago
  A big part of a child's success in school has to do with parental involvement. Home schooled children, almost by definition, have highly involved parents. It would be interesting to compare home schooled children with regular children whose parents are actively involved in their education to see how that matched up.
  - dpatru 14y ago
    Traditional schools are built on an industrial batch model where the goal is to get a certain percentage of the class to basic competency. So students are grouped in classes, taught for a semester, graded, and then moved on. The Khan and homeschool model, in contrast is the mastery model. Students are individually taught at their own pace. They are not graded and pushed on. Instead they keep learning a topic until they know it. In traditional classroom education, the learning is variable while the time to learn is constant. Khan makes the learning constant and varies the time. Some students will learn faster than others, but all students learn to a high standard. Khan is not just delivering a better classroom. He is offering a wholly different model of education.
- bryanlarsen 14y ago
  To over-generalize: one-on-one teaching results in results that are about 2 standard deviations better than normal. Home schooling results are about 1 standard deviation better than normal.
- sirmarksalot 14y ago
  This does not sound like an argument against home schooling. If it sounds unfair, that's kind of the point. My issue with home schooling is the lack of variety and specialization. With only one teacher, the child just isn't going to be exposed to as many viewpoints as they would in a traditional school setting.
  - candiedunicorn 14y ago
    Homeschooling and un-schooling are actually quite varied. Un-schooling, specifically, is usually very specialized. Take Erik Demaine, for instance. He is the youngest professor in MIT's history - he was un-schooled until he entered college at 12. He specialized in mathematics because he loved it. Homeschooling is still regulated by the state. Students must still pass certain tests, and often homeschoolers have a community of parents and children who get together to learn with each other at educational events geared specifically to their education. Both models have evolved, though they still have some cons. So, too, do public and private schools. Personally, I'd like to see us picking the best parts of various educational systems and putting them together.

saraid216 14y ago

Except that the notion of homeschooling is hugely co-opted by cultists who brainwash their kids. It's hard to get a serious dialogue on homeschooling going when most people equate it to a stand-in for Bible study and avoiding science education.

billswift 14y ago
I've heard this said often enough, but most of the homeschoolers I actually know or know of indirectly are pretty lefty or libertarian. Most Christian extremists go to little private schools which are scattered all over the place.
- jasonrr 14y ago
  There is actual data to look at here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf Desire to provide religious or moral instruction is at the TOP of the list of reasons people homeschool.
  - Gormo 14y ago
    ...among those who answered the survey.
    - r00fus 14y ago
      This is a survey by the NHES, a government organization - do you think there is some reason for selection bias? Here is the survey's remark on their estimation methodology: "When applied to survey data, weights allow for the generation of national estimates from a sample of respondents. They also adjust for characteristics of the survey design, nonresponse, and noncoverage. However, biases may exist in the data if weighting procedures have not adequately adjusted for these issues. A large-scale bias study was conducted in conjunction with the 2007 data collection. Readers interested in the findings of the bias study, as well as detailed information on NHES survey methods, weighting, and response rates, can refer to the Data File User’s Manuals published online at http://nces.ed.gov/nhes http://nces.ed.gov/nhes ."