"If we don't stress anyone in a school, if we don't hurt someone who doesn't succeed, if the children are given the confidence and the opportunity to make mistakes, then after a while they themselves will be surprised at what they can do," says Ágoston Weisz, who for years has been teaching programming to students since He started alone, but today he works with more than five hundred students and forty instructors, and his students are winning IT competitions one after another. It's not what he's most proud of.
"Several of our students came to us saying that they are not very good at math. We started working together, and after a month or two these children turned out to be very good, but they were put in a box early in school because they failed some task or paper at the beginning. After a while, they also realized that they were not good at this subject, so they did not like to do homework, and in the end they really got worse grades. We started working with these children to try to let go of the idea that they are 'poor maths'. As soon as this was achieved, they suddenly started to develop very seriously," says Ágoston Weisz, the founder of Alphacademy, which offers programming courses, and a "full-time" Google software engineer in Zurich, about his experiences.
He has been teaching programming to children since he was a university student - he says that being invited as a high school student to a programming course taught by a university student was a defining experience. "It was a preparation for the student Olympics and I experienced it as a huge opportunity. So when our mentor stopped teaching, I continued his work," he recalls. At the time, he was already studying mathematics at ELTE, but after his MSc, he switched to programming and then applied to Google as an intern. After obtaining his master's degree, he moved - to Zurich.
With a hundred children - alone
He was thus forced to stop teaching, "but I really missed him, and besides, many people asked me if I could continue to mentor them, and that's where the idea started that I could even hold specialist classes online." It's 2017, "it was still very new to teach children online". Then came the coronavirus epidemic and the lockdown. "The children started inviting their friends and classmates to the special classes, so suddenly I found myself there with a hundred students, alone," he recalls.
Ágoston Weisz has been living in Zurich for years, but he has not stopped teaching - he has been teaching children online for years His former students joined him, and Alphacademy grew out of it. Today, more than forty instructors deal with five hundred students, from third graders to high school graduates - they are constantly waiting for applications from motivated children. The teams of ten to seventeen people meet with their mentor online every two weeks, but between the two occasions, an "infinite amount" of diligence tasks can be solved. Nothing is mandatory, the children can decide how much time and energy they spend on it.
By the way, surprisingly a lot - one of the reasons for this is probably the playful point-collecting competition around which the entire system is built. "If the whole group solves a lot of tasks, then there are different games that we play together. The students don't collect points for themselves, but for their team, so they don't trample each other, but lift each other up," he explains. They do not let go of the hands of the children between the two specialist areas, who can ask for and receive help in solving hard tasks at any time on an online interface - but they are also encouraged to help each other if they can.
By the way, surprisingly a lot - one of the reasons for this is probably the playful point-collecting competition around which the entire system is built. "If the whole group solves a lot of tasks, then there are different games that we play together. The students don't collect points for themselves, but for their team, so they don't trample each other, but lift each other up," he explains. They do not let go of the hands of the children between the two specialist areas, who can ask for and receive help in solving hard tasks at any time on an online interface - but they are also encouraged to help each other if they can.
It is no coincidence that most Hungarian schools work with methods that are sorely lacking. Ágoston Weisz does not only deal with Hungarian students - he is also a teacher at a Swiss school, so he has plenty of experience with what works for children and what doesn't. And although success is not measured in gold, silver or bronze medals, it says a lot that at least two members of the four-person Hungarian team that qualified for the International IT Student Olympiad in recent years, and sixteen of the twenty finalists of last year's Nemes Tihamér National Programming Competition, were Alphacademy students.
Difficult tasks
He is convinced that children are capable of much more than we think, it is only necessary to create the right environment - for example, his students sometimes call tasks that are learned by people much older than them at school easy, and they usually suffer with them even then. "Our children are given difficult tasks that they often cannot solve. They have to sit down, ponder and think. If they get stuck, we don't tell them the solution, they just get a little help with which they can move on. This can be very scary at first. But if we don't stress anyone in a school, if we don't hurt someone who doesn't succeed, if they are given the trust and the opportunity to make mistakes, then they themselves will be surprised at what they can do. We don't let go of their hands, but they can experience what it's like to achieve success independently," he says, adding that it really matters to children how much adults trust them.
It is surprising, but the fact that students are asked to pay a "tuition fee" of a few thousand forints per month also has motivational power. "For years I taught children for free. It's fine for me, I can do it, because I have a job - but I can't expect the same from others. In addition, it is important that I go a bit against the extent to which teachers and trainers are valued these days. But there was another reason why we decided to ask the students for money: we saw that as soon as the parents had to transfer an amount, the children immediately took the course more seriously and wrote more homework. They improve faster, feel better in class, and want to do more homework. It's a self-stimulating, positive process," explains Ágoston Weisz, adding: they also didn't want anyone to be left out for financial reasons. That's why those who can't afford the few thousand forints a month are given, without question, as much tuition discount as they ask for.
Children are capable of much more than we think - says Ágoston Weisz By the way, he insists that it is not the talented, but the motivated children that should be dealt with - that is why there is no "recruitment" or selection process for them. "It's not good to categorize children that he is talented, so it's worth dealing with him, but not the other one. Anyone who wants to learn more, who is happy to be taken care of, needs an opportunity. We want to deal with all such children. Regardless of how many A's you get in school," he says.
What do they teach at school? And what not?
They can't really build on what they've learned at school - in principle - they start from the basics with the children they attend. "Parents are sometimes surprised by this, because they see that we classify their child in the beginner group, while in principle he already learned to program earlier. Yes, but not in the same way, and not in the way that is needed for a more serious programming language based on the solution of logical and mathematical problems, he says, adding that although the entire education is in need of reform, computer science is severely affected by the lack of teachers. Those who are successful in this field have many opportunities outside of school, and they are also much more respected. While, he explains, there would be a great need for specialists who have achieved success in the field of IT and then somehow turn this back into education, who can speak the children's language and also know what is really worth teaching.
"I learned the definition of a mouse at school. How much different it is when we talk to the children about how self-driving cars work, how to make one. Let them find the solution. Or just talking about how the machine can respond to humans, or even writing an essay. These are questions that will interest children. If there is a problem that is worth solving, that is motivating, then the children are very happy to deal with it. Even when it's really hard. And they don't even realize how hard it is while they're working it all out. Parents don't even understand how a third-grader can sit through 90 minutes. He not only sits through it, but even wants to stay," he says with a laugh.
Of course, many of the students at Alphacademy continue their studies in the field of IT, and get into renowned foreign universities - but many choose a completely different field for themselves. Ágoston Weisz says that they don't want to train programmers, but rather people who can solve the problems they face. It is no coincidence that for quite some time they have wanted to reach children who live in difficult circumstances - so this year students already living in orphanages joined the professional circles.