schoolyard subversion

2001-02-19 [< * >]

Apprentice Education

I was recently asked my opinion on how to best teach computer science. Being rather opinionated about such things, I prepared a rather long answer to the question. I soon realized that the plan was of general use, and that I hadn't written it up yet, so here it is.

This proposal, like most things, has its roots in history (both my own and that of my country). Starting with more general history, I remind you that education was originally practiced through a system of apprenticeship. One teacher would teach perhaps one or two pupils (generally their children) with hands-on, real-life experience in the trade. The system worked rather well.

Despite its success, as time continued on we began to move to a system of mandatory schooling. This system, while generally offering a broader choice of career options, also brought with it numerous problems. It detached students from their important one-on-one relationship with their teachers, separated what they learned from how it was used and taught students the lessons of institutionalization instead of practicality. Now, when systems approximating apprenticeship are used, they are usually called modern or new-age educational methods.

However, despite the success of the current schoolhouse system, very little practical information was actually learned in school. The vast majority of education now takes place on the job, with a system just like the apprenticeship of history. Even more importantly perhaps, the ever-developing fields of technology, where new terms and ideas are being created every day, is next-to-impossible to teach in schools, and so people generally don't even try to. Many of the best programmers are self-taught, or are at least able to learn most of what they need to know on their own.

In terms of my personal history, I learned how to program myself through reading programs others had written, and asking questions about them on the Web. Responses to my naive questions were generally courteous and almost always helpful. I got back responses extremely quickly -- rarely longer than a day. And through this method I eventually learned to program. I took no pre-set course, and had no usual instruction. However, while I was able to learn to program through this method, there is no similar system to learn to program well, which is usually something altogether different.

So all of this leads me to my proposal on how to teach students for any given field. First, find a group of kind, older, wise and respected people in the field and get them on the Internet. Then, take a group of brash, young, naive and impatient kids who are interested field and have them do the same. Then, bring the two together and watch the magic happen.

The old will explain many things to the young, and the young will teach the old a few things too. The young will get an incredible opportunity to learn the most important things first-hand from the people who use them in real-life; the old will get an opportunity to share the joy of their trade with bright-eyed kids eager to learn it.

While a one-on-one relationship between kid and adult should be encouraged, we don't want to cut off the rest of the community. It's important that everyone in the community have a chance to learn from each other. Soon, some of the best method for explaining something will become well-known, and can be written up. This will provide the beginnings of a "textbook" but one written by the experts in the field, and with real-life subject matter -- not the dry out-of-place examples of most textbooks.

What's important, however, is that we don't force anyone into this program. Everything must be voluntary, or else we'll lose the magic of community. Yet, if we're lucky, and everything succeeds, we'll have built an educational community that's free, enjoyable and available to anyone world-wide. Sure seems like everyone wins to me.

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