Long term, it could still be a win.
Obviously not the same, but in the first years of university, I hated math because it suddenly got hard (never before university did I have to learn math or physics just to barely pass). Then, after many nights of reading through books and practicing, grinding, I realized it's not that hard and it made me enjoy solving the "challenges".
The only thing I'd change from this wonderful comment is that it is that hard! It's just that, like any other hard skill, lots of dedicated study and practice makes it easier to do hard things.
What I mean is that before that, I just thought it’s simply too hard for me and the others are smarter or they come from better school. Then, after going through practically 3-5 books for each topic, practically “drilling” exercises, I finally understood why the others “just get it”. It was hard to get myself to sit down, focus, work, practice… but once I worked on a topic for long enough and got better, I realized it’s not magic, I don’t need special talents, and I can just sit down and study most things.
Then, the classes and exams didn’t give me anxiety anymore, I started to enjoy them, treat exams as challenges rather then the step before receiving another failed exam notification…
I studied Physics but switched to software engineering and this experience helped me add another tool to my toolbelt when something gets difficult.
Some perseverance, some time, and we can learn many things. And as you get better, you start to enjoy things.
This is still useful after having left academia, I often look at something and the right "tool" pops up from the toolbox. It helos to understand the world around us and realize how much bullshit we are fed through doctored graphs or tables.
What about chores? How should I make my children interested in chores outside of a reward or punishment?
it is usually possible IMO
What is the per se benefit of the "tax" if not to encourage learning.?
> How should I make my children interested in chores outside of a reward or punishment?
Instill a sense of duty and obligation. Set an example. Children do understand quite young that things need to be done, and they like to help parents.
The tax exists to offset drag of idle ipad time. The tax could be chores, or reading, or arithmetic, or outside play. It doesn't matter.
I'm not a perfect person to be emulated. I want to offset their desire for hedonic maximization not demand the live up to some standard I can't accomplish. I'm on my phone all day.
I think many will be surprised by the amount children can learn if you actually test the limit of their capabilities.
I feel the limiting factor when it comes to learning increasingly difficult concepts is not intelligence but effort. Often teachers and parents may mistake the attention-span deficits of kids for a sign that the material is too hard, when the ability is there and only needs to be distilled with discipline.
Do less arithmetic. We have calculators so arithmetic matters less.
> no amount of sugarcoating will make kids like it.
Sugarcoating is exactly the wrong approach. Its making the subject itself enjoyable.
https://profkeithdevlin.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/lockh...
> This is the lesson unlearned by proponents of "New Math" and "Common Core" in the USA
Not familiar with those, but I the "its fun" approach has worked for me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-pound_burger#Marketing_f...
"The results revealed that many participants mistakenly believed that one-third of a pound was smaller than one-fourth (quarter) of a pound. Focus group participants expressed confusion over the price, asking why they should pay the same amount for a "smaller" third-pound burger."
Disagee. Fluency in basic arithmetic is a very useful life skill.
would you also posit that, since we have AI auto gen tools, we no longer need to teach spelling/grammar to children?
I would not teach spelling by drill and memorisation either - you pick it up if you read.
Learning the basics and drilling them is a useful skill even if you can make the machine do it for you.