Pass the Torch

The Brightest and Best Need Not Go Hungry for Knowledge

In "email logging" and on another blog, I have often railed against the absolute stupidity of the so-called "public education system" in this country, but take note: there is hope. Another forum (Jerry Pournelle's website) often has contributions from some very bright people (in addition to Dr. Pournelle's comments) suggesting real world possibilities that offer hope for better education. In a recent discussion about possibilities for bright students who are often bored to tears or suppressed in our curent "prisons for kids" system, one offering suggests a real world way for bright kids to be challenged by some of the best and brightest minds who have walked in their shoes in recent years, a way for them to "pass the torch" as it were to many future generations that has not been available until now.

Here's an excerpt from that discussion:

"...sharp and wise guidance does not have to wait until the kids go away to college at age 18. Take just history as an example: Imagine someone video recorded (with highest HDTV resolution or even higher and with two or three cameras) all the history lectures of Samuel P. Huntington, David Landes, and a few dozen other top notch historians who teach history in the large. Make a list of the best guys and find out which ones will work most cheaply to have their stuff recorded and made generally available.

A similar process could be done in physics, math, and other areas with the brightest minds teaching what they think are important things to know.

This is a project so obviously needs to be done. Then superbright kids too young to live away from home can watch lectures made by superbright CalTech, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT professors. This could be done with math, physics, population genetics, psychometrics, and many other subjects. I bet Luigi Cavalli-Sforza would like to have his lectures live on after he has passed on. I bet some other eminent scientists feel likewise..."

Great idea! Books are great for "dialog" with great thinkers of the past, but there can be a wealth of information passed on in the way some folks speak their ideas that might just fire up the engines of imagination and exploration in young minds.

It's a great idea. A "light-sharing" kind of idea.