Naval on Education

1. The ideal school would teach health, wealth, and happiness.

It‘d be free, self-paced, and available to all.
It‘d show opposing ideas and students would self-verify truth.
No grades, no tests, no diplomas - just learning.
Actually, you’re already here.
Careful who you follow.

2. What would be taught at “Naval University”?

The first class I'm going to run is actually on persuasive writing. The second is I'm going to send them to a school of persuasion, like the Dale Carnegie Carnegie school.

Then, nutrition. Not that you're going to tell them one way is right, but you're going to make them cook, you're going to make them log diet and see what makes them feel good. Figure out optimal nutrition for themselves because what is ‘correct’ is very dogmatic, and the target moves around so much.

Mathematics, for sure, but it's got to be fun. It's going to come through application. So, make them build instruments with physics or play in the chemistry lab, but always take a mathematical bent to make sure they understand the underlying mathematics. That's really a core foundational thing.

Fitness, but again fitness is finding some sport you love to do. Learn the basics of what builds muscle, what builds speed, what builds flexibility, and so on. 

3. Given the value so many people still place on getting a college degree, do you see an alternative?

We have to separate credentialing long term from education. Filtering, credentialing, and education are all different things. Anyone should be able to take a test that proves that they’re good enough and get a stamp; it doesn’t matter whether they went to Harvard, or they went to their local school, or they didn’t go to school. You need that kind of a system to emerge. That’ll start breaking the university problem. [1]

VCs, universities, and accelerators provide more value from filtering and credentialing than they do from educating and advising.

1/ If the primary purpose of school was education, the Internet should obsolete it. But school is mainly about credentialing.

2/ Schools survive anti-educational behavior (i.e. groupthink) due to symbiosis between institutions that issue and accept credentials. 

3/ Employers looking past traditional credentials can arbitrage the gap. @ycombinator made $Bs doing this for young founders. 

4/ The more meritocratic an industry, the faster it moves away from false credentialing. (I.e., the MBA and tech startups.) 

5/ A generation of auto-didacts, educated by the Internet & leveraged by technology, will eventually starve the industrial-education system. 

6/ Until then, only the most desperate and talented students will make the leap. 

7/ Even today, what to study and how to study it are more important than where to study it and for how long.

8/ The best teachers are on the Internet. The best books are on the Internet. The best peers are on the Internet. 

9/ The tools for learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce. 

10/ Educational credentials are badges that admit one to the elite class. Expect elites to struggle mightily to justify the current system. 

11/ Eventually, the tide of the Internet and rational, self-interested employers will create and accept efficient credentialing… 

12/ ...and wash away our obsolete industrial-education system. [11] 

4. What should people learn in college today, that they can’t learn on their own?

If you're going to go to college, learn something you can't learn on your own. 

For most people, that means mathematics, programming, physics -- it's the STEM disciplines. It means having access to the tools, people, rigor, discipline, and exercises to learn them well.

5. What needs to change about what we learn?

I think learning should be about learning the basics in all the fields and learning them really well over and over. Life is mostly about applying the basics and only doing the advanced work in the things you truly love, and where you understand the basics inside out. That’s not how our system is built. 

6. What would you focus on, if you were running a grade school curriculum?

I would probably optimize for happiness, nutrition, and exercise. 

Show them answers to “How do you build good habits?” “How do you break bad habits?” “How do you have good relationships?” “How do you build basic skills?” 

I would probably have them run a lemonade stand or a small business and earn money so they can understand how that works.  Have them work on something charitable-related, or take them to the third world and show them suffering, true suffering, so they can get some context. I’d probably teach them public speaking, business writing, basic persuasion. Maybe a little bit of programming on top of the reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

I’d probably eliminate chunks of geography, history, and honestly even second or third languages. Music, unless they had musical inclinations. I know this is going to horrify some people, but the question is, “What do you emphasize?” It’s not initially good to educate every child in every thing. You have to find out, “What is their aptitude?” [7]

I think the problem is we’re over-educated in weird ways and we’re mis-educated. [1]

Lots of literacy in modern society, but not enough numeracy. 

Coding is the new literacy. 

 7. How can we create more effective schools?

“Schools replace curiosity with compliance.” This was a tweet, @Kpaxs posted and I retweeted it. Five words. I love that because it is so short, just five words. I think that is so right. 

When I think back to my own education, so much of it was, “Sit down.” “Shut up.” “Raise your hand to go to the bathroom.” “No, you must memorize this, even though it doesn't make sense to you right now.” 

With children, you just have to feed their curiosity. All the really smart kids I know are essentially autodidacts, self-learners. You cannot force a child to be a self learner, all you can do is feed their curiosity. For example, if they want to want to pick up the guitar, get a guitar. If they want to put it down, put it down. If they want to go to a soccer class, get a soccer class. If they don't want to play soccer, don’t force them to play soccer.