[IAEP] Sugata Mitra at TED 2013

[Yoshiki Ohshima]

On Sat, Mar 9, 2013 at 10:12 AM, Caryl Bigenho <cbigenho at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When I was teaching I had a saying usually attributed to Confucius
> (carefully hand drawn in calligraphy… no computers available to print it
> then) and hung above the chalkboard (old technology). It was my motto for
> teaching:
>
>
> "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."
>
>
> It may have been first said 2500 years ago, but I believe it is still valid
> today. That is why I do what I do!

Invoking proverbs is fun as you can always find the one that argues
for the other way.

The above one probably was a somewhat liberal translation of what
Xunzi (荀子) wrote.  But one other thing Confucius said was:
"學而不思則罔、思而不學則殆", for which I found an English translation: "If you
learn without thinking, you cannot understand truly. If you think
without learning, you will be self-righteous."  (I might translate the
last word to "dangerous", as it is closer to the original meaning.)

Alan Kay often says: Children won't discover calculus on their own.

Doing is important, but in the learning process good checking system
and guidance is essential.  The above quote should be taken as "in
addition to hearing and seeing, you should do things".

--
-- Yoshiki