Good morning, John.
You and I were lucky enough be raised in a
country where we got free education for twelve
years.
We just didn't have to pay for it.
You of course did pay for some of it, because
you had to go to a fancy boarding school,
though I guess that turned out okay with the
book you wrote, because of that and all.
That level of free education is pretty remarkable,
it's a pretty cool thing.
We don't think about it but, you know, I learned
a lot of good stuff.
I learned how to read, how to do algebra,
plate tectonics, what a mole is, how to play
marimba, er... speak some Spanish.
It was a nice gift that society gave to me,
and I didn't hate every minute of it, but
that did not stop me from complaining about
it constantly.
Of course since I was not the brightest glow
stick in the pack, the things that I was complaining
about, were kind of terrible.
But the American education system does have
some problems, and I want to talk about two
of the kind of interrelated ones right now.
First, for me, here's what education is: it's
building a toolkit with which to solve problems,
and applying that toolkit in the solving of
problems.
You've got to have the necessary tools and
the skills to use them.
Now that involves knowing lots of discrete
pieces of information.
But it is much more than that.
Like, we don't learn the alphabet because
it's good to know some completely arbitrary
letters in an order.
We learn it because it helps us learn how
to read and write, and reading and writing
solves the problem of the impermanence of
spoken words.
We can write things down and then they'll
last much longer than if we just say them
which is... they last this long and then it's
gone.
Everything taught in schools should be designed
to increase our collective problem solving
toolkit, and all the things that are taught
do that.
US History does that and long division does
that.
And some of the problems are solved just by
having a more informed populace, like having
people who all know the same things and can
agree on some basic stuff.
Like it would be really great, I think, it
would solve a lot of problems if we had a
gender studies course that was required in
high school.
But what I remember is a lot of shoving facts
in to my short term memory so that I could
do well on a test and then forgetting them
immediately, and that did not make my toolkit
more robust.
The only thing it really taught me was how
to do well on tests which I eventually got
pretty good at.
That's my first problem.
Second, the toolkit that we develop in school,
and out of school, is the thing that we will
use for the rest of our lives to solve problems
personally and professionally, and professionally
solving problems is what you call a job.
But if everyone gets the same toolkit in school
then we have a glut, we have an oversupply
of people with that toolkit, and when supply
outstrips demand, well, I learned all about
that in my economics class that I had to wait
until college to take.
I worry about there not being a broad enough
diversity of toolkits.
This is why at Crash Course, which is our
educational YouTube channel, youtube.com/crashcourse,
we're starting to look into topics that are
a little bit more off the beaten path.
We've just started anatomy and physiology
two weeks ago; there's two episodes of that
up now.
That's basically the study of your body, how
it works, why it works and when it breaks
what happens.
And we also just yesterday launched Crash
Course: Astronomy hosted by Phil Plait who
is an astronomer and science communicator
that I kind of can't believe I get to work
with.
So youtube.com/crashcourse, you can learn
about your body and your solar system.
And speaking of things that I cannot believe,
and you may have been waiting for this, President
Obama who just announced that he's going to
try and make two years of community college
free for all students, thus broadening the
toolkit of Americans, thumbs up on that one,
is going to have a little conversation with
me in which we are going to hopefully talk
about some issues that matter to people of
America.
You may not be people of America, but if you
are, then please leave things that you would
like me to talk about or thoughts that you
have in the comments or on various social
media you can use the hashtag #YOUTUBEASKSOBAMA,
this one right there, there it is.
It will be live streamed; you can watch it
on the White House's YouTube channel on January
22nd.
That's Thursday.
I promise I won't puke.
Fwaa, just talking about freaks me out.
Leave your questions, that will help me; I'll
appreciate that.
I put an American flag back behind me for
the occasion, and I'm wearing red, red and
blue.
So look at me, I'm totally pro-ing it up.
Alright John, I'll see you on Tuesday.
