Education vs. Information

[Hank Green]

Sometimes people will leave comments on my videos saying things like "I learn so much more from you than I do in school."

For any given three minute period, I imagine that that may be correct. But overall, it's either untrue, or yr doin it wrong. Let's be clear here, John and I get to pick and choose the most fascinating things out there: What it means when a guy has a rod shoot through his brain, how giraffe sex is terrifying, the very beginning of subjects (which are all totally interesting at first, but then just get more boring and complicated the deeper you go.)

We are providing information, trivia, almost. And trivia is called trivia because it is trivial. It's nice to have it in your brain, but it isn't "education."

Education happens when a series of pieces of information enters your brain giving you a complete (or at least, more complete) understanding of a topic. Whether that topic is the function of mitochondria, or the linguistic structure of sentences. And getting a full understanding of those things doesn't happen in three minutes, and it's extremely difficult to make entertaining. So, when you say "Hank, you should be my teacher" I'm not sure if that's true.

I've never taken on the kinds of challenges that your teachers take on every day. I've never tried to make something truly boring interesting. I've never tried to create a full picture of some complicated yet important bit of the world in other people's brains.

But I want to try. So I think, in the next week or so, both John and I are going to attempt to cover some topics that would normally be taught in either high school or early college. These are going to be done in not just one, but several videos, because you simply can't do it in one video.

[Lauren LeBlanc]

I have a chemistry test on Monday, so orbitals and the peirodic table would be very nice... some information on functions would be VERY helpful because ALGEBRA 2 SUCKS.

[Chamoky]

just a suggestion but try and find out what subjects the nerdfighters are struggling with and then seeif you can help them with it.

[Robert Jorgenson]

Nerdfighter University? YES PLEASE!

[Kirby]

Well, your little tidbits of knowledge make me want to learn more. I've been reading more since I started watching vlogbrothers, just I wanted to one day make a cataloged home library like John's. It's the little things in your videos that spark the want for knowledge.

[Lori S.]

One thing I hate about teaching writing is that I always feel like there's no information for me to transmit. I love what I do, but it's frustrating because it's not like I'm trying to get across a set of facts that I can then test them on. (My husband teaches neuroscience and I'm often very jealous of his job.) I'm trying to teach them a process, a way to approach texts and blank screens, and even then it's not a process I can break down into 5 clear steps or anything. Most of the time I feel like I'm not getting anything useful across to them, they feel like my class is a waste of time, and that all I'm really succeeding in doing is making interesting stuff boring. Such is teaching remedial writing, I suppose.

I do think, though, that we often have a wrong view of education, that it is primarily about having somebody tell you stuff you didn't know, and then you know it. It's very top-down. While there's a place for that, I think a big part of education is not learning facts, but learning how to interact with the world and with ideas in complex ways. You have to actually get in there yourself and work with the concepts and usually interact with others for that to happen, and not just passively absorb information. I think most of us will forget the vast majority of the content we learn in school--I managed to get an A in calculus when I was a senior in high school but fourteen years later I can barely manage long division--but we gain skills through the process of learning that end up serving us a lot more.

[Kimberly Ayala]

I completely agree that the information isn't exactly education. For me, however, I take what I learn in your videos and apply it to what I learn in school. If we were learning about quarks or animal mating habits, I would think of the videos you made, making the rest of the subject matter and little more interesting.

[Charlie Roy]

Vlogbrother videos have educational value because they are practical, memorable and significant.

When I find myself arguing with someone about something that I CLEARLY remember happening, I remember how flash-bulb memory works and I usually back down a bit and admit the possibility that maybe things didn't happen EXACTLY the way that I remembered them, but if I still can't LOSE that argument, I remember that playing the game is what matters, not the results, and then sometimes, when someone is losing or lost and I find myself trying to console someone inconsolable I remember the words "Don't just do something, stand there," and I am immediately more present for that person so that I can bare witness to their grief or loss.

Hank, education isn't about facts or formulas or history lessons or grammar, it's about teaching people to learn. Nerdfighters do that every time they turn on their cameras and share their passion and vulnerability with the world. You can do it, so we can do it. The best teachers are passionate and inspired by the world around them and in turn inspire others to be compassionate and curious about their own surroundings.

"Education happens when a series of pieces of information enters your brain" ...and you make decisions about how those pieces of information fit into your life. What you and John do helps me to make the pieces that enter my brain fit that much better, you give me perspective (and courage) and that's educational.

[Kristen Albertson]

I think that some of the videos you both make do teach me, but a lot of them are just relaying information that isn't necessarily useful. I'm looking forward to your teaching! Right now, biology is my favorite subject, and algebra II is my least favorite... I know it might be hard for you to do a math-related video, but if you could possibly do a video about both it would be nice :)

[Chris Gauvain]

I honestly think you are both right and wrong. I host bar trivia and have turned some facts presented in your videos into questions here and there. And yes that would make them trivial, though, some are informational and educational. Such as when you refer to DFTBA as an initialism rather than an acronym. I feel that acronym has become an all encompassing term and people forget that it is not always correct. So even though you cherry-pick fun subject matter you still educate. A lot of educators, although bound to a curriculum, also find joy in what they teach and choose what they'd like to teach as long as it adheres to that curriculum. Most notably one's who teach John's books. ( ;

[Alyson]

While I can't necessarily state that you and John teach me better than my professors do, because there isn't a massive amount of time shared and dedicated to learning.
What you do instead, is inspire me to learn more than the status quo so I too can pull fascinating facts and stories out of my hat with a blink of an eye. Plus, you guys are brilliant, and who doesn't want to be brilliant in a smart way?