Hacker News: jstoiko

New comment by jstoiko in "Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?"

jstoiko — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 19:34:25 +0000

That’s right. And at the other end of that spectrum, there is what some refer to as “radical unschooling” which gives total agency to the child over the material they’ll learn. I know some radical unschoolers who’ve even ended-up in conventional schools because it was their decision. It may sound like a paradox but it happens, usually not more than a few years though, but again, depends on what’s available to them wherever they live, and also the friends/peers and what they are doing too. I think these choices come down to the child, parenting style and the environment in which the child evolves. There is no right or wrong in my opinion.

In his 2017 paper[1], Peter Gray goes in depth on all the different self-directed education approaches including some of the well-known self-directed “schools”, from Summerhill in the UK to Sudbury Valley in the U.S.

[1] https://cdn2.psychologytoday.com/assets/self-directed_ed.-pu...

New comment by jstoiko in "Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?"

jstoiko — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 06:55:23 +0000

https://www.self-directed.org/resources/research

New comment by jstoiko in "Why is homeschooling becoming fashionable?"

jstoiko — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 06:14:22 +0000

Homeschooling often gets confused with self-directed education, aka “unschooling”. These are not the same.

The former tends to replicate school and requires a teacher, usually a parent. It’s basically school with added/paced/altered/enriched curriculum at the cost of socialization, although that can be compensated with other forms of peer groups, especially in urban area. Comparing this method versus school A or school B is pretty much like comparing school A and B as two schools can be as different as any given school and homeschool.

The latter is what John Holt referred to as homeschooling but is based on self-determination theory and has an abundance of science to support it. Neuroscience backs this theory too, I think the rate at which active learning learns is somewhere around x20 faster than passive learning (ie “teaching”). Very serious folks like John Holt, Peter Gray, or Akilah Richards to name a few have dedicated their life work to supporting self-directed education as a superior form of education. What Peter Gray’s research shows shows is that outcomes are basically the same except for life satisfaction and psychological outcomes. In essence, it leads to same rates of secondary education, jobs and socio-economical outcomes, except an unschooled child makes for a much happier adult later on.

Sadly, because the majority of people went through contemporary schooling or some version of it, people’s biases makes people not want to hear this.

I’m not sure what the OP’s circle looks like but I would be surprised if none of those so called “techs pro-homeschooling” are only doing the school at home version without having stumbled upon any of the science around self-directed.

Your Code Is Sloppy

jstoiko — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 06:48:47 +0000

Article URL: https://thenextweb.com/news/code-sloppy-unless-youre-a-computer-scientist-syndication

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28690924

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Reports from Scientists to Stop Covid-19 [pdf]

jstoiko — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 23:21:04 +0000

Article URL: https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/Scientists_to_Stop_COVID19_2020_04_23_FINAL.pdf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23001363

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Hospital resource use based on Covid-19 deaths

jstoiko — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 15:56:52 +0000

Article URL: https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22703981

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Prioritization of cancer therapeutic targets using CRISPR–Cas9 screens

jstoiko — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 22:43:22 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1103-9

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19656214

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

Earth’s magnetic field is acting up and geologists don’t know why

jstoiko — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 04:46:40 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00007-1

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18871594

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by jstoiko in "You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin? The Awkward Etiquette of iPad Tipping"

jstoiko — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 19:51:28 +0000

> You can reasonably withhold a tip from someone who is actively hostile or incompetent, but really all you're doing is making yourself feel better.

Well, one could argue that this is effectively NOT making you feel better, quite the opposite. Empathy is what makes people feel better. So to counter-argue your point, tipping someone despite the fact you may have negative feelings about their service or judge incompetent, is empathy.

As a native French/European person, I've always thought of tipping as counter-intuitive, i.e. "why is the tip not included?". But after a few years in the U.S., I realized that this is actually a small gesture of appreciation that -- even if insignificant because so normalized -- will make the person serving you feel a little better about their job and themselves.

For that reason, I am now on the "always tip" camp.