[biscarch]

"Want to revolutionize education?"

Yes

"Figure out a way to 1) reliably detect the optimum education environment for each student, and 2) give it to them."

tokenadult, If you wouldn't mind discussing some ideas myself and a friend have, my email is in my profile. We're in the fairly early stages, but the above seems to be the pervading idea and feedback would be great.

[fatbird]

When you're talking about solving this problem, please please please consider the role that poverty plays in education. Many of these discussions occur in a vacuum, absent any considerations about how various externalities affect education. At a minimum, consider examples like school lunches raising test scores because students aren't too hungry to concentrate.

Every problem a child has outside of school, shows up in the classroom as a barrier to learning. If you want to revolutionize education, understanding that is a very good starting point.

[johnjlocke]

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. You have to take care of survival before you get to betterment and self-actualization. Thank yo for remembering that these things play out in the very real world, not inside a bubble.

[biscarch]

One thing on my mind is the notion of a "Star Trek Economy". The idea being that in Star Trek, specifically TNG, the basic needs aren't an issue. Food is provided when needed, entertainment and physical fitness are available, etc. I use the Star Trek metaphor because people around HN are very likely to understand what I mean.

I think that things like living arrangements, mental health and necessities (food,etc) must be provided in a way that allows focus on learning. The larger problem seems to be a cultural one, which isn't an easy fix, but the aforementioned items are a decent start.

From my thoughts, I believe that the approach necessitates starting at a University-type level, with the self-directed learners. From the self-directed learners, we can then extrapolate flexible structure for those that want/need it and expand further to the concept of "classes" or "programs" down the line. I am interested in the fact that graduate level programs in the current model of education tend to go from the rigorous structure of K-12 to very unstructured, research driven.

My personal experience doesn't include extreme poverty, but I will make sure I consider the impact of deficits on the educational process.

[yukoncornelius]

The term you are looking for is a post-scarcity economy.

[biscarch]

Thank you very much! I don't know how that slipped my mind.

[tokenadult]

my email is in my profile

I think like a lot of other HN users, you think you have disclosed your email address because you've filled out the field that lets the Hacker News curation team know how to reach you (for example, to get a new password for your username if you forget your old password). I actually can't see an email address when I view your profile. You should be able to discover how to reach me by reading my profile, and I'm happy to discuss your ideas.

[biscarch]

Ah. Thank you for pointing that out. I've fixed my profile and found your contact information as well.

I'll make contact soon.