From: alexboko (alexboko@umich.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 10 2003 - 11:57:51 MDT
This reminds me, though I have no concrete plans to reproduce, I keep
thinking about what I would do if it fell to me to teach survival skills
to a fledgling.
I think I'd make allowance merit- and negotiation-based. Examples:
1) "Applicant Initiated Grant Proposal"
You want a talking Poke-Tubby? Tell you what, do a search on the
internet on where I can buy you one, and write me a short paragraph
saying why you think this Poke-Tubby will be more fun for you than other
toys I could buy you for the same price, or other toys I've bought you
in the past. Extra points for coming up with clever arguments.
2) "Call for Proposals"
There was an old guy named Robert Heinlein who wrote some interesting
books for kids your age. If you write me a one-page book report or do a
five-minute 'seminar' on one of his books, there will be XX
yen/egolds/whatever-we'll-be-using-for-money-by-then in it for you, if
it's as good as or better than the Isaac Asimov report you did last week.
3) "Matching Funds"
Here's XX rands/neo-rubles/whatever for you (thanks for defragging the
family PC). It's yours to spend as you like, but for every
rand/neo-ruble you put into saving up for that glow-in-the-dark hamster
you wanted, I'll add a rand/neo-ruble of my own.
That way, real life won't take them by surprise... they'll have already
developed intuitions for how to go about getting what they want (rather
than just 'gimme!').
Also, people, kids especially, are visual/tactile learners. How much
easier it would have been for me to understand valence interactions of
the common atoms if I had a molecular model kit to play with when I was
a kid. Same complexity level as a tinker-toy, but communicates
supposedly high school level concepts. Likewise, visible man/woman,
microscopes, telescopes, bread-boards for circuitry... can anybody think
of good toys for developing intuitions for calculus, evolution, algorithms?
--
--Sincerely, Alex F. Bokov
------------------------------------------------------------
"I think the guy who believes death is a natural part of
life should get the seat with the broken seat-belt."
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