Thank you for the article, Kshitiz … the examples are beautiful I guess everyone will understand afterwards what’s wrong with education when children have to “learn” something by memorizing it.
I learned briefly how to use the abacus, but we never used it as an educational tool (very interesting, did not know about this use). Instead, learning to calculate stuff in my head, including transformation strategies like 1213 = 10 * 13 + 213 = 130 + 26 = 156, was a completely unstructured process. I mostly had to figure it out by myself back then …
But then again, from a certain age on, teaching how to figure out something by yourself is the only thing a child needs to be taught. With that skill, they’ll find their way, and also solutions for challenges in their society.
That’s why I like the Karkhana's “hackerspace type” approach to education a lot. That new model for education is also pioneered in other parts of the world, like by Educate-Me in Cairo, Egypt. It’s an after-school hackerspace for children. Fellow Edgeryder @asmaa_kamel works there and presented their approach in detail in her post on Edgeryders a year ago. Asmaa, maybe you have some new experiences to share with us about how to pioneer better education (this time in Nepal)?
(Oh and for those who missed it, here’s Cheryl’s Birthday math riddle mentioned in the post above. It’s pretty good