How a Radical New Teaching Method in Matamoros Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses Cory Doctorow - Boing Boing
go to original October 18, 2013

These students in Matamoros, Mexico, didn’t have reliable Internet access, steady electricity, or much hope - until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential. (Peter Yang)

Sergio Juárez Correa teaches at José Urbina López Primary School in Matamoros, Mexico - a violent, terribly impoverished border town. His school is often referred to as "a place of punishment." But when he encountered the educational ideas of Sugata Mitra (who famously installed computers in slums for illiterate street-kids to use, and found that they'd taught themselves to use them and were educating themselves), he rebuilt his teaching around leaving his kids alone as much as possible. His classroom became one of the highest-scoring groups in the Mexican educational system.

Moreover, one of Correa's students, a young girl named Paloma Noyola Bueno, demonstrated extraordinary talent and appears to be some kind of savant with incredible potential. That's pretty amazing and heart-warming, but what gets me as the parent of a school-aged kid (and as a sometime teacher) is the demonstrated efficacy of letting kids drive their own education with their own curiosity and passion.

Read the rest at Boing Boing

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