As I visited the legendary School 42: “pool”, cats and the Internet instead of teachers


    School 42 is famous for its revolutionary system of education: there are no teachers, students themselves check each other's work, there is no need to pay for tuition. At the same time, the school manages to train the coolest programmers, who are torn apart by the leading companies of the world. I was scared to look at these miracles with my own eyes, both as an employee of GeekBrains (after all, our main task is to teach IT specialists), and as a developer. When traveling around the USA, I had such a chance, and I did not miss it.


    The school is allowed on excursions and open door days, and in order to get there at another time, it is advisable to be familiar with one of the students and arrange a pass on his behalf. Without any hesitation, I went through the security service, walked around the campus and talked with several Russian-speaking students - there are quite a lot of them. My main guide was a friend by the name of Sergey, who moved to California from Belarus a year ago and was invited to study after successfully completing the “pool” (more on this below). By the time of our meeting, he managed to unlearn 2 months and told a lot of interesting things.


    The school was opened in Silicon Valley by French billionaire Xavier Neal, who believes that traditional programming instruction does not work. He and several other sponsors pay all expenses. The school has two official campuses - in Paris and in Fremont. With the support and assistance of School 42, educational institutions with the same teaching model have opened in French Lyon, Romania, Belgium, Ukraine, Finland, Russia and other countries. The Moscow counterpart, founded by Sberbank, is called School 21. The rules there are the same as in Fremont, except that free housing is not provided.


    The name “42” was taken from the book “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams, and this is exactly the answer given by the computer of the Thinker to the “Main Question of Life, the Universe and All That” after seven and a half million years of calculations.


    How to proceed?


    Up to 45 years old are accepted to school in Fremont; in the Paris department, "youth" are studying - they take up to 30 years old. To enter, you need to pass testing on the site: several tasks on logic, memory and creativity. They are designed to identify how your brain is, in principle, suitable for solving programming problems.


    The level of skills and knowledge in programming does not matter. As the school experience showed, talented guys with a lack of experience in development quickly catch up with experienced programmers.


    "Pool"


    Those who have done well online testing are invited to campus for 4 weeks and put into the “pool,” La Piscine. In the “pool”, the candidates almost literally drown in difficult tasks - all of them are connected with programming in the C language. It will not be possible to combine the “pool” with work or tourism, it is necessary to devote at least 10-14 hours a day to it. In this case, it is advisable to get enough sleep and eat in order to be in shape.


    One of the principles of learning at school: sharing knowledge with other students. But this is not about the "pool". Other students cannot help beginners - this is strictly prohibited. Something can only suggest those who "splashing" next. You can also search for information on the Internet. Few people cope with all the tasks, but this, as it turns out, is not the most important thing at all. The main thing is to show obstinacy, performance and progress. They even consider how much time you sit at the computer. Not everyone is able to go forward, despite the feils: many, faced with the third, fourth failure, just give up and leave.



    Those who successfully cope with the tasks of the pool are invited to the "cadets", this is the first level of education. It’s convenient that you don’t have to start studying right away, you can go home and do some business. And students are free to choose a place, and can continue their studies not in California, but in Paris.


    How much to study


    The training has 21 levels, all of them have poetic marine names: "cadets", "midshipmen", "admirals" (cadet, midshipman, admiral), etc. It can be designed for a period of three to five years. However, as students say, everyone here is usually interested in the work and development of their startups, and does not remain more than a year. As a result, almost no one reaches Level 21 in Fremont.



    At the fifth level, students get the right to participate in real serious projects, for example, in FileMaker. At the seventh level, you can go on an internship in one of the companies in Silicon Valley, after which students can choose: stay to work (if offered, of course) or return for further studies. There is still the opportunity to assemble a team to develop your startup or join another student’s project. Project participants are given three-month immunity to live in a hostel, and resources and a working area are allocated. Especially for those who want to get training as soon as possible and get to work, there is a 42 Starfleet Academy program. This is an intensive program with large volumes of work and tighter deadlines.


    The school is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no schedule, students come and study at any time convenient for them. Even at night, if at this time they work best.


    How and where do students live


    At the School there is a hostel with 600 places, also completely free. A place is allocated for visitors, for those who manage to submit an application on time. You can rent a house, but it will cost a lot: one-bedroom apartments - $ 2000 minimum. However, many students rent apartments together nearby.


    According to Sergey, in order to preserve his place in the hostel, the student must work hard: “The administration records how much time the student spends at the computer (each person enters his personal login before starting work). If someone works less than the others, he will quickly be asked to free the bed in favor of the more assiduous. ”


    You can’t cook in the hostel, you can boil the kettle at the most, but the local cafe The 42 Cantina prepares healthy and tasty food. Lunch or dinner costs $ 5-6. Sergey said: “You can eat normally and go on coding. Sleep, eat, code, repeat. Many, by the way, live on the Soylent. He was invented by an IT specialist who was tired of spending time cooking food to the detriment of coding. Sometimes my friend and I drink it for lunch, a great thing and inexpensive. ”


    Seals live on the school grounds, raccoons, possums and squirrels wander. It is forbidden to feed them. But to comply with such a ban is very difficult, and squirrels no, no, yes will fall nuts.


    In the following parts of the post I will talk about how students study at school without teachers and grades, what kind of puzzle tasks students have to complete and how they look for work.


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