Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

If your job were just back-to-back meetings where you lacked the authority to interject, you'd essentially be doing what a typical American child does every starting at about age 6 Parents starting to get a real visceral dose of this now that their kids are on Zoom calls all dayhttps://twitter.com/indyfromspace/status/1247856156963409920 …

I cringe for next year's teachers trying to cater to the kids who kept up with the work simultaneously with those whose parents told Twitter to f-off instead (on top of the normal differentiation required). 1st grade is a _great_ age to fall behind in maths and never catch up.

If you genuinely believe children will turn into adults who cannot add or multiply because their parents let them skip a half year of Zoom calls, I think your intuitions are absolutely absurd. School stunts these poor kids. Look at a 1st grade math curriculum. Christ.

Actually spend some time with 6 year olds; tell me they can't learn all that and more inside of a month. Learn some actual math concepts (you likely know none; you know operations). Try teaching them to a child. Read the Mathematician's Lament. Stop parroting stupid tropes.

Ouch! I have a degree in engineering - I won't claim to remember every last bit, but I do know a few math concepts. I work with kids down to age 7 (although my fiancee teaches ages 5/6) and kids absolutely internalise ideas about being bad at things at that age.

Didn't intend my original tweet to be particularly aggressive, so apologies if it came off that way. I'm sure I agree with lots of criticisms you have of the school system (different country, probably similar drawbacks). I also worry that parents don't understand fully...

...which bits of the curriculum they can cut out without it impacting their kids down the line. Kids who get the idea that they're bad at maths carry it with them - the idea that learning history somehow makes up for that seems like a confirmation of that lack of understanding.

You're not being aggressive. I'm being aggressive. There is no way for me to convey through text how disturbing I find it when someone anywhere near child education indicates they'd rather see a parent force an unhappy early education than let their child learn what they like.