And what it specifically isn’t By MARTIN REZNY Dismal sentiments like these always make me think about where that silly education thing got so wrong. If an alien landed on our planet today and conducted a study of our educational institutions in order to figure…

When we barely understand the present By MARTIN REZNY Much has been said about how obsolete standard education becomes by the time it’s concluded, but I haven’t really seen any specific suggestions for a reform, aside from vague mentions of supposed cure-all methods with a very narrow scope, or broadly…

Why you should try to learn as many different things as you can By MARTIN REZNY Here’s a notion so out of sync with today’s world that you probably only know it by a name that’s a throwback to a time several historical epochs ago — the renaissance man. The…

It’s time to learn the lessons of interactive organized fun By MARTIN REZNY If you’re interested in education reforms or gaming, maybe you have heard a term that encapsulates the topic I’d like to address in this essay — gamification of education. First, I’ll explain the basic concept, and then…

The importance of pondering time and listening for communication skills By MARTIN REZNY As I’m nearing my fourteenth year in competitive debating, now a judge and trainer of speakers, aspiring speakers seem to me to be losing their way, including those who are teaching them…

And why not that many do By MARTIN REZNY As someone who started debating more than a decade ago and now is an executive of an international debating society, I must completely agree with all points laid out by the author of the article. He clearly speaks from direct experience…

From a first person point of view By MARTIN REZNY In most of my previous articles about alternative approaches to education, I’ve focused either on what an individual can do if they’re left to their own thoughts and choices, or on impersonal systemic changes. Your article has made me realize…

But do it regardless — my comment against a conservative life advice video By MARTIN REZNY First, here’s the video that I simply had to respond to. You should watch it before reading my comment, but if you don’t have all day, it basically says, very fairly and eloquently, that…

Part one of how building my own website is taking me back, I guess By MARTIN REZNY To give you some context, I don’t have the scientific data for that, but the Czech Republic might be the world capital of community theater. You pretty much can’t throw a cat around…

On the difficulties of making everyone be nice, agree, and get along By MARTIN REZNY To continue the sense of sunshine, rainbow, and unicorns that’s sweeping the world right now, I think I need to address the optimism, or at least hope, of people who believe that education will one…

Some of my doubts about letting people just grow into anything they want By MARTIN REZNY While I do agree that this is perhaps the best approach to education, or really the only one that doesn’t raise major ethical concerns, there’s still the pragmatic side of the issue — what…

The catch of pragmatic and utilitarian approaches to incentives in education By MARTIN REZNY While I do believe that all pragmatism shouldn’t just be thrown out the window in education, I must say there are some philosophical hurdles to the utilitarian approach as well. …

Why economic rationality is poison to learning, teaching, and research By MARTIN REZNY Full disclosure, I’m just a lowly holder of a social science Master’s Degree from the Czech Republic, but recently, I have almost started attending a PhD program in Slovakia. Well, dodged a bullet there, apparently. I’m also…

And the importance of where the money comes from and how By MARTIN REZNY As much as I do appreciate your trust and confidence in my ability to pull off something like that, I have to say I was worried that you’re going to suggest such way of financing the…

And how not to encourage intellectual snobs By MARTIN REZNY I have actually heard about this point of view on education in one of the Youtube lectures of Wes Cecil. This is the exact opposite of indoctrination — instead of having a preconceived end goal or target of education towards…

Or how one shouldn’t forget to have a heart as well as a brain By MARTIN REZNY I think that Comenius had pretty much foreseen how an attempt at the institutionalization of his “wisdom” will get inevitably fumbled. Partly the problem is indeed that our education system has only adopted…

Do you want your children to get the most out of their education? By MARTIN REZNY I guess it will be best if I address this directly to the people who can truly make all the difference in the world when it comes to how education works. Because yes, you…

Without turning it into a thought-prison By MARTIN REZNY Similar to what I said in one other response in this thread, I don’t think you can realistically have no structure in learning. It’s just not possible in a human society. …

Or how needlessly oppressive modern schooling truly is By MARTIN REZNY You’re reading my thoughts at this very moment as I’m reading Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. …

How a single person can learn alone in a room with a computer By MARTIN REZNY What a wonderful and entirely practical conception of learning using new technologies — learning to actually solve problems using the wealth of knowledge available on the internet, instead of using computers in the classroom…