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Jessica Hannan writes at I4U that Elon Musk pulled his children out of an established school after discovering they weren't receiving the quality of education that catered to their abilities and built his own school with only 14 students whose parents are primarily SpaceX employees. Musk wants to eliminate grades so there's no distinction between students in 1st grade and 3rd and students focus on the important elements of each subject. By integrating the thinking process to include a progressive step-by-step approach, children will be challenged and able to understand result through a systemic pattern. "Let's say you're trying to teach people about how engines work. A more traditional approach would be saying, 'we're going to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches.' This is a very difficult way to do it." Instead, Musk says it makes more sense to give students an engine and then work to disassemble it. "How are we going to take it apart? You need a screwdriver." When you show "what the screwdriver is for," Musk explains "a very important thing happens" because students then witness the relevancy of task, tool, and solution in a long term application."
According to Hannan, Musk's approach to delete grade level numbers and focus on aptitude may take the pressure off non-linear students and creates a more balanced assessment of ingenuity. Admitting books were "comforting" to him as a child and to reading everything from science fiction to the encyclopedia and philosophers from "morning to night," Musk points out that not everyone will be strong in every subject, or be able to retain regurgitated standardized aptitude facts beyond the test. "It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities." So far, Ad Astra "seems to be going pretty well," according to Musk. "The kids really love going to school."
[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Wednesday May 27 2015, @12:21PM
Of course Musk's school's students will be better off, the per-pupil KPIs will be off the charts compared to regular schools. The challenge is to take the lessons learned from the approach he's taking and work out which ones can be applied to improve education for the less well off. I think the counter-intuitive method of starting with the practical problems and working back to teaching the tools would have done wonders for me personally, I guess we can only wait for the experimental educational establishments like this to bootstrap themselves to a large enough sample of students before we can tell whether it works for everyone in general.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday May 27 2015, @02:14PM
Is there any reason to believe the students will be barred from university due to lack of a standard grades?
Perhaps the same could be said of high school.
Btw, is primary school level?
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:09PM
I could definitely see an admissions department frowning and doing a WTF when they saw the application with no grades on it at all, although that's what covering letters are for. It's up to Musk et al to ensure that they aren't hamstringing the futures of their budding offspring, either by getting them the recognised qualifications they need somewhere along the way, or intervening in the applications process themselves to ensure their kids aren't sold short.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:16PM
I think just having a piece of paper with Musk's signature on it would get your foot as far through any college door (that was worth going to) as it needed to be.
When has anything, including academia, been about WHAT you know, instead of WHO?