What More Online Information Should Mean For Young Kids

“MOOC?! Is that Swedish?” What you might hear from any High Schooler, or most young people really, when you tell them that there are alternatives to learning something than through standard in-school courses, an example of which is a MOOC, better known (or really not well-known at all) as a Massive Open Online Course.

To backtrack a bit, my name is Aaron, and at 15 years old, I’ve published an Amazon Best Selling Book, am planning a conference destined to change the way computer science is perceived on the East Coast, and I maintain a 4.0 GPA at my high school.

Also, something that most people don’t know is that I have succeeded while managing to not learn in school. I’ve managed to achieve my success through experience, online education, or through the teaching of someone close to me. I couldn’t tell you the first thing in the Biology Textbook we were supposed to read, but I can tell you enough about entrepreneurship to make your head spin.

I’m a sophomore in high school now, and for practically my entire life, I’ve always loved being educated. Not in a traditional sense persay, but rather in a hands on way — I love to learn anything and everything outside of school, from discussing politics at family dinner to learning about high finance from a conversation with my brother on the way to get Ice Cream cones.

The moral of the story is that my whole life, I’ve been taught that knowledge is the major 🔑 to success (bless up), and so I’ve always strove to learn anything I could.

So, it shouldn’t surprise you that by 3rd grade I knew more about presidential elections and the way our government works than 99% of my grade does now. But, I never really maximized my learning potential. My information base was limited to my family and authors; even with an intellectual family, it’s hard to be educated on different topics that interested me.

When I heard that there were other ways I could learn, I was dazzled.

I’ve always hated school. I can’t stand sitting in class for 40 minutes at a stretch, even for subjects that usually excite me, like social studies. I simply can’t learn sitting in a class; yet, when I’m at home on my laptop, watching videos about how the FED was formed and currently operates, I’m a sponge, and can go for hours at a time learning about stuff that excites me.

I don’t know what it is exactly that disables me from learning in the classroom. Maybe it’s just because of the way the material is presented is so god awful and un-interesting, in that it’s more of the recitation of facts as opposed to real understanding. For more on that, and other rants on education, definitely grab a copy of my book on Amazon.

When my brother first told me about the concept of the MOOC, and that there were countless videos online through organizations like TED Talks, and that YouTube was far more than Grand Theft Auto Cheat Codes, I was a sponge, and really still am to this day.

By 8th grade, I came to 2 realizations: first, there were endless possibilities surrounding me to get truly educated, in any way, shape, and form; and second, that I was living in and am surround by an education bubble, in which knowledge that was obtained outside of school was practically looked down upon.

So, in attempts to break down this bubble, I’ve decided to write this piece, and share with the masses the endless possibilities that I am currently taking advantage of.

The reason I say that there are endless possibilities associated with education outside of school is because the amount of information at our disposal is ridiculous. No one could’ve imagined the Information Age expanding at such an exponential rate as it did. The amount of data we peddle onto the web exponentially increases at a remarkable rate.

Real-Life Examples

As a showcase of the incredible amount of information that’s surrounding us, I’ll give my top 3 favorite sources for outside learning:

First, let’s actually discuss MOOCs. A Massive Open Online Course is exactly what it sounds like — defined as “a course of study made available over the Internet without charge to a very large number of people”, I think of it more as a college course that’s videotaped. You can check out an answer on Quora here if you don’t believe that most aren’t at a somewhat similar level, and that they offer great value. Self-paced or Structured, Paid or Free, you can find them anywhere, like on Coursera, edX, Udemy, Udacity, and more, with topics ranging from Artificial Intelligence to Rocket Science to how the Federal Reserve Operates. I think they’re the coolest thing since sliced bread, and so I take them like M&M’s.

Second, I think that Language Learning Websites are really skipped over. Online, there are tons of different companies with different approaches on how to make you a better language speaker. Duolingo, Babble, and Lingvist are just some of the many online/app versions, on top of the hardcore base from big brands like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. All of these programs, with the first couple being free and the last two expensive, are incredible, two of which I use myself, and all help me succeed in ways that my Spanish teachers in school couldn’t. They’re the perfect supplements that students never use!

Finally, the entirety of Blog Articles as a whole is an important division in outside education. With everything from companies like Medium, Business Insider, and the Huffington Post, to personal blogs, anybody and everybody can put their voice on the web. Like with most things in life, some people have nothing useful to say, and others could provide an incredibly deep and informative post on their respective topic. Using Google as an intermediary between you and your perfect blog post, the amount of information presented on the web from blogs is ridiculous. I myself find it hard to keep up with all the blogs I would love to read, from Tim Ferriss’ personal blog to stalking Medium for their top posts.

The moral of the story is that there are so many different avenues in which you can take advantage of education, yet most kids live in a bubble. When I say NOBODY knows that there’s another way to learn than school, I mean that 1 in 100 kids know about any web resource, and that’s optimistic. Their mentality is that, “the only education I need is from school,” which in my opinion is degrading and heart-breaking, especially to kids who have never even heard of a MOOC or something similar.

Success In Life Through Auxillary Information

So now, let’s get to the good part: this information provides for success in every facet. For myself, auxiliary educational resources took me to most places a 15 year old wouldn’t even know where to look. I learned how to start every type of business imaginable, start an event, the best practices for writing a book, how to get good grades in school through studying techniques, to be more productive in my work. The list goes on.

If you haven’t picked up by now, I’m an autodidact at heart, someone who chooses to watch 2 Ted Talks a week and take MOOCs like they’re candy. And this vast knowledge base puts me at an unfair advantage over my peers, considering where these resources could take others.

If these types of resources were placed in more students’ hands, success would be inevitable. As an example, students would be more able to pursue their dream careers and get more of a head start. Just the other day I was talking to one of my classmates, a friend who thought he was really passionate about architecture, and was unable to take a lunch because he couldn’t fit it into his schedule with the architecture class. Now, forget the fact that most of the architecture classes in high schools are pretty sub-par, that’s a whole other story; what is really crazy is that he had no idea that websites like Coursera or edX really existed, and that the courses he would find online would be infinitely better than the ones he would take in school. He thought the only way for him to get a jumpstart on architecture before college was to take a class, and he was willing to give up something as valuable (at least to us) as a lunch for it. Just imagine if every student was able to get a jumpstart on the careers they thought they would want to pursue.

Now, for the other side of the coin: what about the kids who don’t know what they want to do in life? MOOCs and watching TED Talks and experimenting provides opportunities to cover a wide breadth of different careers and to see which one you enjoy. This actually happened to me; after a few helpful hints from my brother, I took a look at some videos involving Computer Programming, and it was love at first sight. It’s now a career path I may want to pursue, and one I’m starting an event for. What if all kids could go into college confident of what they want to major in?

Thirdly, these types of resources are so incredibly valuable because extra information can provide an outlet for which a student can receive help in school. Many of the curriculums of programs online, such as Khan Academy, line up with what you learn in school, and many times do I turn to environments like Khan Academy, Youtube, a blog article, or anything really, to assist me in school. These resources, all of which cover different scholarly topics in different ways, give me the extra informational boost I need to succeed.

A big problem for me in school, one that I still face today, is the concept of the big picture in math. I’m someone who learns better when I understand what the role of something is in the grand scheme of things. I hate it when schools don’t tell you why you’re doing what you’re doing. So, to combat this, I was forced to research what I was learning, and from 7th grade on, the big picture has never been a problem for me.

So, what happens when you place auxiliary knowledge-sources in the hands of students? You’re left with career-ready, smart, and resourceful young minds, who are capable of infinitely more than before they had access to such materials. I find that after listening to an interview or a podcast, I’m actually able to learn more, and my capacity for all subjects increases. And on top of all that, you provide kids the opportunity to find their passion and to experiment with their lives. Something big that my brother Justin believes in, and something that I now try to follow, is to always do what you love, in that once you find your passion in life, you don’t really work a day in your life. What if all kids could find what wakes them up?

At the end of the day, the amount of Auxiliary resources for information is an incredible facilitator for the burden today’s students face. If only more people were able to take advantage of these resources, we’d see incredible success.

Aaron is a 15 year old sophomore at Syosset High School in Syosset, NY. He has published a bestseller, What Middle School Didn’t Teach Me, and is currently organizing LIHacks, a Hackathon for Long Island High School Students. For more about Aaron, check out his website at AaronLafazan.com, or reach out at Aaron@AaronLafazan.com.