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sixes_and_sevens comments on Open Thread, May 19 - 25, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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I have the privilege of working with a small group of young (12-14) highly gifted math students for 45 minutes a week for the next 5 weeks. I have extraordinary freedom with what we cover. Mathematically, we've covered some game theory and Bayes' theorem. I've also had a chance to discuss some non-mathy things, like Anki.
I only found out about Anki after I'd taken a bunch of courses, and I've had to spend a bunch of time restudying everything I'd previously learned and forgotten. It would have been really nice if someone had told me about Anki when I was 12.
So, what I want to ask Lesswrong, since I suspect most of you are like the kids I'm working with except older, is what blind spots did 12-14-year-old you have I could point out to the kids I'm working with?
I don't know how much of this falls under your remit, but I had quite a few educational blind-spots I inherited from my parents, who didn't come from a higher-educated background. If any of your students are in a similar position, it's worth checking they don't have any ludicrous expectations out of the next several years of education which no-one close to them is in a position to correct.
Blind spots such as?
I'm not sure any specific examples from my own experience would generalise very well.
If I were to translate my comment into a specific piece of generally-applicable advice, it would be to give students a realistic overview of what their forthcoming formal education involves, what it expects from them, and what options they have available.
As mentioned, this may be outside of the OP's remit.
The specific examples may not be used, but would clarify what sort of thing you're talking about.
One example: certain scholastic activities are simply less important than others. If your model is "everything given to me by an authority figure is equally important", you don't manage your workload so well.