School should teach the skill of invention | Po-Shen Loh and Lex Fridman

TL;DR

The focus is on maximizing the number of students who make an impact in the long run, rather than just winning competitions.

Transcript

you commented about this thing about um you know the generalizable skill and what what could people do with olympia's afterwards so that's actually my interest in the whole thing uh i don't i mean i don't just coach students how to do problems in fact i'm not even the best person for that i'm not the best at solving these problems uh there are othe... Read More

Key Insights

• 😉 The speaker prioritizes maximizing the number of students who make a long-term impact over winning competitions.
• 🥅 The goal is to cultivate problem-solving skills and encourage invention in education.
• 🤗 The speaker's teaching method involves open-note exams with new, invention-based problems.
• 🌍 The approach challenges traditional education practices and emphasizes real-world impact.
• 🌎 The speaker's philosophy aligns with the Mathematical Association of America's approach to competitions.
• 🏛️ The method used in the speaker's classes at Carnegie Mellon is not equivalent to average education practices.
• 🗯️ The focus is on students learning to solve anything in a specific area and becoming inventors in their own right.
• 🎙️ More videos with Po-Shen Loh:
  • Big Think 2017 Top Ten: #4. Po-Shen Loh on How Anyone Can Be a Math P…
  • Po-Shen Loh: Mathematics, Math Olympiad, Combinatorics & Contact Trac…

Questions & Answers

Q: Why does the speaker not prioritize winning competitions?

The speaker believes that focusing on winning is narrow-minded. Instead, the goal is to cultivate students who will make a long-term impact through their inventions.

Q: How does the speaker teach problem-solving skills?

In the speaker's classes, exams require students to solve new problems that they have never seen before. This encourages them to think critically and invent solutions.

Q: Is the speaker's teaching method scalable to other forms of education?

While the speaker's method may not be the average in the world, it provides an alternative approach to education. By emphasizing invention and long-term impact, it offers a valuable perspective on education goals.

Q: How does the speaker measure success in education?

The speaker defines success by the number of students who are featured in the news for inventing something new. This metric focuses on real-world impact rather than academic achievements.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker, a math coach, prioritizes maximizing the number of students who make the news in the future rather than winning competitions.

• The goal is to instill problem-solving skills and encourage students to invent new things that will have a long-term impact.

• In the speaker's classes, exams are based on new problems that students must solve through invention.