Teaching your Child

Well, I found Lisa VanDamme's essay interesting and now she has a four part plan on teaching children. While I have no children now, I may one day be a father, and I find education very important. While I do not currently claim a faith, I'd consider knowledge and the pursuit thereof to be a sacred rite (like me reading at least one book a month, and often more than that), along with the virtue of thrift. Now, I present Lisa's education plans: Part I deals with the hierarchy of knowledge and how abstract concepts need a solid an concrete foundation. Part II discusses the difference between learning and simple memorization when it comes to complex scientific subjects. I knew that E=MC^2 as early as nine years of age, but it was years before I understood what that meant. Part III continues the criticism of pure memorization as students who don't understand a subject are often bored by it, thus affecting their experience and perception of science...also important to note as I plan to teach History in a few years, and often students complain about history being boring. Part IV is about how science is taught and using hands-on approaches to make certain the subject is learned, as well as going back to the basics historically and showing the historical foundations in science. Personally, Lisa's approach is appealing to me as science was one of my weaker subjects, though I did better when historical examples were used and when I actually learned instead of just memorizing.