Educational Emphases

Reality Check

Education does not happen in a vacuum; even the ‘bubble’ that some of us think we live in is not neutral or detached from reality. However, most educational environments assume neutrality or even idealize it. Not only is this fantasy but it strips students of the ability to see their education as something that can answer the problems they face now, not the problems that they’ll face at their dreamed of Meta hot desk. Through their learning environments, students can and should engage with their disruptive thoughts and emotions, not meditate them away so they can continue grinding through a problem set; they need their assumptions challenged when their line of thinking aligns with those who seek to oppress them and others; and they must endlessly dream of what could be so that every piece of knowledge that they obtain or synthesize is in pursuit of a greater tomorrow.

I endeavor, in every interaction, to ensure that my students are

  1. mindfully observing their body, speech, and mind;
  2. reflecting upon and enacting how they want to position themselves socially and politically; and
  3. imagining a brighter future.

What this all means is that our sessions will not always focus on the subject at hand. Frequently, we will run into something more pressing, e.g. anxiety regarding a friendship or a political development that directly affects the student or their community, and take the time to learn from those moments. The school environment does not allow for this and instead teaches students to bury what is present and alive for something that is uncertain and not-at-hand. This behavior over long periods of time will lead to a disconnection from reality, which can take on many physical and mental aspects.

This is Temporary

My intention is for you to ultimately not need me before the end of your course. As much as I enjoy sharing a conversation with someone and learning alongside them, I want you to learn how to learn. Although the school structure makes it hard to appreciate this, taking x years of your life to focus on learning is truly a gift. Why forget most of what you learned because the reward system, i.e. grades, doesn’t factor in your long term retention? When appropriate, I will introduce you to some methods that can obviate the need to cram for finals ever again and that will allow you to learn language and science with surprisingly similar strategies.

Primacy-Recency Effect

Although I am a strong advocate for breaks and encourage them at least every 45 minutes, more frequent pauses for proper digestion of one’s learning ought to happen in line with the primacy and recency effect. Therefore, our 45 minute sessions will usually be broken again into ~20 minute sessions that end with 1. a reflection in the student’s own words on what was covered; 2. noting particular sticking points, e.g. a step in a problem they had trouble with; and, if the student is interested in long-term learning, 3. formatting these takeaways for studying in their app of choice.

If you are uncertain what is meant by parts of this brief philosophy, I encourage you to reach out and we can discuss further. Although some students might need more guidance in certain areas versus others, I will not compromise on these endeavors as I had to in the classroom.