Mountain climb metaphor (example)
This text is part of: "I would never send my kids to school" by Piotr Wozniak (2017)
Cultivating childhood passions
The Mountain climb metaphor of schooling explains how the optimization of education can lead to a blind path of inefficient learning.
The picture below illustrates an exemplary emergence of the illusion of the benefits of schooling. All high achievement in the area of human creativity begin with a passion. The most productive passions begin early in life. The education system has an adverse affect on childhood passions (see: Childhood passions). In addition to destroying the love of learning, the impact of schooling on early passions might be one of the worst side effects of the Prussian education system.
The example flowchart of passionate and prolific learning begins at the time of watching a Spielberg's movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" in the early childhood. As of that point, passions and interests spread dendritically and culminate with a PhD in astrophysics. As of that point, graduates are usually free to explore, and their further success depends on knowledge, talent, opportunities, etc. I posit that the survival of childhood passions may be the most important ingredient in further high achievement.
Figure: Childhood passions may meander from an ET movie, via YouTube and planets, to various branches of science. They may culminate in a PhD in astrophysics and a career in science. It is important to note that the goal at the top of the mountain may be impossible to determine today. It may not even have its name. The future will tell. On the way to the top, the child may pick up the alphabet, reading skills, algebra, and other necessary basics. The road to knowledge is based on exploratory learning. The joy starts in childhood and, ideally, continues well into the retirement age
Spielberg's movie may initiate interest in the biological aspects of the extraterrestrial life. This in turn may spark interest in life on Mars. Mars may then extend to an interest in other planets. In modern era, a child can quickly cultivate a passion for planets with YouTube. Through the YouTube recommendation system, it is easy to branch out into many directions, including the interest in general biology and the ABC of physics.
Mixing reality with fiction is a norm at this stage. This confusion is predominantly harmless. Interest in the signs of zodiac might be an example. All contradictions are resolved in the process of neural generalization. This occurs spontaneously. This is part of knowledge crystallization.
Importantly, all those interests in astronomy and physics can and should occur at preliterate stage and can also contribute to the interest in symbols. This way, instead of the usual curricular approach of early school that begins with the alphabet and counting, the child may being with the interest in star types such as G2V or M3V. This can lead to better knowledge of the letters of the alphabet, and later reading. In democratic schools with no curriculum reading can emerge at 3 or at 10 depending on the child and his interests. It is always a resultant of a competition and synergy between multiple interests. Knowledge of physics and biology can be based on a good understanding of scientific models. Those can, for example, be cultivated with the assistance of PhET simulations.
In children with rich interests, passions can quickly cover many areas of the typical high school curriculum. The coverage may be highly superficial in terms of the specific material. However, only the actual long-term knowledge matters in the comparison. With that in mind, knowledge of homeschoolers and unschoolers is usually vastly superior in terms of stability and coherence. This is the kind of knowledge that boasts a high degree of applicability. This is the knowledge that makes the difference in life. Our exemplary student with the ultimate PhD in astrophysics will retain her childhood passions and pursue a career, e.g. in science, with zeal and joy.
Replicating passions at school
The problem may begin when curriculum designers try to trace backwards the development of an expert in astrophysics. It is instantly tempting to skip the ET movie, exoplanets, and ban signs of zodiac as superstitious. YouTube may not be included as it is full of potential distractions. Monothematic focus is the key to the method and a straight path to boredom. First months at school are spent on drilling the letters of the alphabet: 3 days per letter. It is easy to deprive the curriculum from all vestiges of extraneous material that could spark new passions. High volume of learning, high interference, high degree of coercive learning, can quickly lead to the loss of the learn drive via learned helplessness. Some kids may still enjoy long days devoted to learning the alphabet (e.g. through the talents of the early teacher). Few will retain their love for mathematics by the age of 10. Most will hate their schooling experience by the time they are 15. There will always be some time reserved for movies, but the experience can easily be ruined by a tired brain: "You can watch that movie once your homework is done!". Some of the high school graduates may still opt for a career in astrophysics. However, without a true passion, this kind of joyless pursuit in bound to result in fewer breakthrough achievements.
Figure: When coercive learning based on a curriculum attempts to replicate a success of a child who follows its passions to a PhD in astrophysics, exploratory learning is diminished. It is replaced with linear learning devoid of passion. Knowledge loses on coherence. Comprehension is poor. Poor stability undermines the longevity of knowledge. Career in science is hardly possible. When such career is undertaken, it may be joyless and low on creative fruits