Since I’ve recently graduated from university this past June, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking regarding my learning — both in and out of the classroom setting. I’ve done a lot of writing about learning, ranging from best practices for learning different subjects, utilizing the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge to enjoy learning more, and much more. One thing related to learning that I have not adequately touched upon is my perspectives on “institutional” learning.
Simply put, there’s a large amount of undue complexity presented upon the initial introduction of many topics, sacrificing understanding in favor of rigor; this is something that academic pedagogy is especially guilty of. This learning methodology is the fastest way to destroy any interest or passion towards a topic, whereby you first by cover all definitions in painstaking detail, then proceed to some etymological or historical exposition about the topic, then if you’re lucky, finally end with some convoluted tangential examples (call this School A). In contrast, I find that there is tremendous value for students, where concepts and topics are introduced from a high-level and paired with a variety of analogies to aid in understanding (call this School B).