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founding

I never thought about the doorways! Thanks for this -- what a fun one. I loved learning that Escher inspired mathematicians (as a maths-inclined person myself who loves advocating for its role in helping us translate patterns and relationships in nature ...)

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Thank you. :) I loved learning that too! He was so admired for his precision - which I gather was all instinctual. He flunked math at school, and there was one instance in his career where he collaborated with a scientist on a project, and when he got feedback, he was hugely disappointed to find it so offputtingly technical. To be born with a flair for something, and then train it in a completely different way to everyone else - that's truly the mark of someone living their own life in a remarkable way. And also a reminder that there are so many ways to train the senses...

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founding

Absolutely.

Also gets to one of my big annoyances with math/science teaching, which is that it really *is* about how we interpret and understand the world around us, but the way curriculum is developed is almost totally divorced from that reality. Meaning that people who have an intuitive grasp of patterns and relationships might never understand that they're actually "good at math"; it's just that the way it's taught tests and promotes something else entirely.

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Yes - the One Size Fits All model, which actually might be a misnomer, since there are so many universally-applicable problems with it. For example, sitting down while we learn- that's been one of the big takeaways for me of Annie Murphy Paul's "Extended Mind" book, where she talks about how body movement and memory are so tied up together. And yet students are rendered basically immobile while they're stuffing their heads with what they're taught. It could be a huge problem.

But also, as you say, the sheer lack of freedom for trying out new ways of learning, and of giving students the freedom and encouragement to try them out. I don't know how that'd work with the industrial model of education, but maybe that's a sign it's just doesn't work, or work well enough, period?

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Actually, one thing I was thinking: the Protege Effect in education. Like, with every class, give one or two lessons completely over to the students and let them chase their own enthusiasms in whatevcer way they wish, and the teachers come in and take notes, and those notes get fed back...somewhere?

I don't know. Hmm.

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founding

A lot of people do flipped classrooms or inquiry-based learning, but it tends to be at university level rather than younger kids. I think there's just not a lot of flexibility given to how public education is structured, and at least in the U.S. funding is designed to be very punitive--funding is partly tied to things like standardized test scores, so if you don't have an administration and staff who are willing to take risks for different learning styles, you end up teaching to the test by rote.

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founding

(I just finished that book, BTW, thank you for the recommendation!) Yes -- this came up in my research a lot too about children's brain development, which needs lots of vestibular stimulation that they simply can't get in school.

I did find a doctor in Minnesota who designed Break Up With Your Chair for workplaces, and ended up designing a school for a district that wanted to try incorporating more movement. The design was pretty radically sitting-optional, and teachers were worried kids would be too distracted all the time, but as you might be able to imagine the kids actually ended up doing better on things like math. I suspect that we/they put a lot of subconscious energy into forcing our/their bodies not to move when that's what they need to be doing.

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Thanks for the shoutout, Mike! 🙏 I enjoyed reading this.

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author

I should have guessed you'd written about Escher before, since I knew about your love of Monument Valley.

However, did you know about this Wikipedia page? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_inspired_by_M._C._Escher

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I haven't played any of these, but on your recommendation I did get Townscaper and I love it! 🙏

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There was an Escher exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery (near where I live) a few years ago. It's a little out of the way, so they advertised it with a big sign on the South Circular. I couldn't resist... https://twitter.com/LevParikian/status/677847808494452736?s=20

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