Education is a tool that gives you the ability to think for yourself. It sounds simple enough but isn’t. Learning to think is the ability to use logic, cognition, perception, ethics, etc. to shape our thoughts. To do so independently requires courage, confidence, and an ability to embrace uncertainty and fear. Education, then, should seek to impart the ability (with heuristics, reasoning, inter-disciplinary framing) to think, and the metacognition (for removing biases, understanding epistemology) to do it independently.
Education is the controlled exposure to disciplines and concepts that lets me explore the vast tract of human learnings over the thousands of years we have been in existence. And once exposed, letting me build my own, unique mental model of how the world works. This mental model becomes the latticework (in Munger speak) for evaluating incoming decisions and striving to stay alive and kicking in this brief flash in the pan existence we have in this world.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a Swiss psychologist whose work in developmental psychology has had a profound impact on our understanding of how children learn and develop cognitive abilities. Piaget described two complementary processes through which children learn and adapt to new information: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation involves incorporating new experiences into existing mental structures or schemas, while accommodation involves modifying existing schemas to fit new experiences.
The important point to note is the emphasis on new experiences. This is the idea of constructivism which says that children actively construct their understanding of the world through interaction with their environment. It’s common knowledge that children learn best via hands-on exploration and active discovery. Sensory plays, science experiments, creative expression, construction and building, outdoor exploration, dramatic or manipulative play, exploration through free play are all ways in which new experience seep into their perceptions and result in assimilation or accommodation.
I feel like what gets missed sometimes, as we plan and re-plan the education for our children is the impact social interactions and cultural context plays in shaping individual cognition. I have been wondering about how parents here in the US decide between ‘feeder’ private schools versus public schools for their kiddos’ elementary, middle, and high school education. One reason commonly given for why parents with means choose public schools regardless is because it gives their kids exposure to a social circle that is diverse not just in race, but also in economic class.
In this viral article, The Disadvantages of an Elite Education, William Deresiewicz argues that the homogenization in the Elite universities has turned the education in the best of these institutions as a sort of curse for the students. He says that cookie cutter student backgrounds (class not race), a reliance on brand and trust in the institution, the jingoism of the elite, and a vastly reductionist understanding of smartness and intellectualism, are largely to blame for this. There is no doubt that these institutions continue to be a vital pillar in driving human progress. But the question this asks is, can they be better? I have a feeling that despite the homogenization, and admittedly narrower definition of smartness, where Ivy league education (and likewise with IITs/IIMs in India) succeeds is that it offers the Type-A, peculiarly insecure, and insanely ambitious students a kind of social interaction and cultural context that is invaluable and hard to find elsewhere. The startup lore in Tech industry tend to validate this with the discourses on the social circles that form around the PayPal Mafia, ex-Googlers, ex-Meta, etc. helping and nudging each other towards tech celebrityhood.
Cybernetics proponents argue that cognition or consciousness or soul is effectively a pattern of computation. It’s nothing other than a distinct formation of information conduits that define who we are. Some of it is born, some are acquired through education and through education via experience. These pathways collect signals and feedback from the external world and reform and refresh and revisit their structural definitions (aka neuroplasticity), resulting in a fully-formed individual, with their own inner voice. If we are to develop a system for thinking independently, cybernetics call for a) enforcing a clear and consistent feedback loop, b) working towards an adaptive (read: individualized) learning system, c) a deep understanding and application of systemic thinking, d) control and regulation of the information systems our body relies on, and e) reliance and inherent trust in technology integration in education.
Richard Feynman, the master educator and scientist, popularized the idea of first-principles thinking which is likely an application of independent thinking because it asks the learner to dis-entangle the real, the factual, with the perceived and the derived. More importantly, first principles thinking seeks to fashion a Swiss-knife tool that can address the most complex of questions and turn them into a series of broken-down curiosities.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. – Richard Feynman
It’s very easy – especially today when information is at your fingertips – to fool yourself into thinking you have mastered a concept or understand a technology or a political position or a sociological study. But when we are curious – not for a particular outcome but for furthering our own understanding of the world, we can sidestep the deceptions we often subject ourselves to when we are learning.
And that is why I believe the single most important factor in fostering independent thinking and enhancing learning is curiosity. Curiosity is the engine that drives exploration, inquiry, and discovery. When learners are genuinely curious about a subject, they are motivated to ask questions, seek answers, and delve deeper into understanding. Curiosity ignites a passion for learning, leading learners to actively engage with material, challenge assumptions, and explore new perspectives. It encourages critical thinking, creativity, and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Cultivating curiosity in learners empowers them to think independently, embrace challenges, and unlock their full potential as lifelong learners.
When we become lifelong learners, we give ourselves permission to fail. When we are open to failures, we remove the fear of thinking for ourselves.
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” – Richard Feynman
Jargogled Impressions. 