I would be interested to see how a self paced learning program with a dedicated teacher would end up if it was focused on embracing getting sidetracked. I know I've sat through history classes in the past and had semi-unrelated questions I wanted to research or ask about but didn't want to waste people's time. In situations like that I would prefer to have a computer to get a quick answer versus pondering it in the back of my head.

There must be some truth to an idea that you don't learn as much from an answer from a question you didn't ask.

[–] someguy@lemmyland.com 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, I remember a couple teachers that encouraged randomly asking questions like that, and the whole class was really engaged. It was very rare but an amazing environment to learn in. I feel bad that there's so many people that never got to have those sort of teachers.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's like the educational equivalent of a gateway drug. Some of the electives I took like programming really encouraged it and that's what kept me interested even afterwards with subpar instructors.

[–] Jamie@jamie.moe 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think at a certain point, you should be able to drop math as a subject and take programming instead. There's no shortage of math concepts in programming that still require understanding of underlying concepts, but I can easily say if I had that option in school, I'd have learned way more in a programming class than I ever did in math.

[–] CorrodedCranium@leminal.space 1 points 1 year ago

I mean programming is a way to get someone engaged and to some degree there can be creativity. It would almost be like a more topical and realistic version of a word problem

[–] Jamie@jamie.moe 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I had a history teacher in school that liked me even though I barely paid attention in class. I was bored in the class itself, but loved history and would spend the entire period just reading the textbook because I found it interesting. So even though I didn't pay attention I would still ace assignments like nobody else in there.

I was usually a couple chapters past the class at any given time.