Rick and Morty and stupid student 01.31.2022

So, one day one of my "brilliant" students comes to me and says: "I have discovered how I can become smarter".

I look at him and say: "Please share with us your wisdom?"

He looks triumphantly and goes: "I watch Rick and Morty and become smarter!"

This is actual story. I am not kidding. The idea that in one of the best schools in our country there is a student who believes such nonesense terrifies me. But this issue needs to be adressed.

Our mind is exactly like muscles. It becomes what it does. We lift heavy weights, and we get good at that. We read books, we get good at reading books. We watch cartoons, we get good at watching cartoons. We watch videos on youtube about math, we get good at watching videos about math.

There is only one way to train your mind to do math. Actually do math. Actually do math exercises.

Many times when we think that we are thinking, we actually dont think. We walk again and again through the same neural networks in our brain, and we dont do any conclusions. We don"t develop new neural patterns. It is not thinking. I don't know what it is. Maybe sleepwalking?

Many people think, that when they do calculations they "think". It is not true. Of course there is no doubt they preform some mental work, but it is not thinking.

First component of thinking.

When you do math exercises you use short term memory. That is why it is better for you to do math exercises not on paper but in your mind. It will help you to expand your RAM (Random Access Memory) in your brain. Very usefull, I highly recommend it.

Second component of thinking.

Second component of your cognition is Logic. You get stronger in Logic if you do Geometry exercises. Especially when you prove theorems.

Third component of thinking.

Common sense. This one is hard. Because common sense is rare in books. Common sense is rare among people. And sometimes even wise men make mistakes. So you should always be a student of life. There is sometimes more common sense in trees and in dead wood, than in living people. So you must learn how to drive your own conclusions from watching what people do, and from listening what they say. Watch, listen, but have your own opinion. If you are agree with everything what people say, there is not much difference between you and tree in the wood.

Thinking is hard business.

Because we are hard wired, because our thinking is linked to organics it is hard to think in new ways. It is hard to grow new neural links. It is much easier to slide down over the neural links that already exist. Carving new neural links in our brain like a sculptor, building new ways of thinking is hard business. That is why older men become more conservative. Some people unable to learn new things in highschool, that is why not all people go to highschool. It is my estimate that 90% of people give up on thinking in 7-th grade. In 7-th grade children stop thinking and start following their instincts or social models they been exposed to. If there is some urge or need they just follow the urge and use social models to fullfill their need. Our education system works to impress some models in head of children, the ones who can survive this process called success. Because education is public and in mass it works.

Education for thinking.

But what if we orient education on actually thinking. What if, in 7-th grade, together with Logic in geometry we introduce Logic in algebra? What if we give students more questions on proving algebraic inequalities and some calculations? Could this turn the tide? What if in 7-th grade we introduce compositions evaluting and judging social behaviour? Could this tilt our education towards more thinking? What if instead of shoving up theme after theme in their physics class we let our children develop their own gravity theory? What if we let them measure gravitation on their own term? What if we let them discuss, debate and criticise their theories in class? Could this spark thinking instead of memorizing? What if instead of one or two memorizing students per class we will have five or ten students who will be able to reason and to think on their own therm? Are we not in the business of growing brilliants? Is this not the best way to do this? Then it shall be done.