The dream is palpable here. The reality is standardized education. I suggest a transitional approach where we light the fire of passion under every student for part of the day but feed the machine of education the rest of the day.
When I look back at my own education, I find that passion and dreams were the fuel and when I found the school stopped supporting my internal reality, I moved on to a life with people and places that did.
Thank you Seth for allowing us to dream of a better life as we see it.
Steve
VIDEO
More:
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From the George Couros blog
http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3706
Timing
transcript from TED :
0:13
good morning boys and girls
0:18
(mumbling from crowd) that was terrrible
0:20
you've learned how to do that from a young age, you're supposed to say
0:23
good morning mister Godin, so let's try again
0:26
good morning boys and girls. (from crowd) good morning mr Godin
0:33
have you thought about what that's for
0:35
have you thought about how
0:38
hundred and fifty years
0:40
that was ingrained into the
0:45
and he thought at all
0:46
as people on the cutting edge
0:48
as people who are interested in making school work again
1:00
i don't think we're answering that question
1:02
i don't even think we're asking
1:05
everyone seems to think they know what school is for
1:08
but we're not going to make anything happen
1:10
until we can all agree
1:12
about how we got here
1:14
and where we're going
1:17
is to put that question into your head
1:19
and help you think about it
1:21
first we have to understand
1:23
what school used to be for
1:26
named mary yvette boule
1:30
came up with this notion, she was a mathematician in the late eighteen hundreds
1:33
that you can use string and nails and wood and make decorations those things with
1:38
where the string goes back and forth
1:42
and that a teacher on the cutting edge a fifth graders might decide
1:45
to use that idea of modulo nine and remainders and string going back and forth
1:50
an important lesson about math, so this memo went home
1:54
at my kids public school and said
1:56
we need help with this
1:59
so i'm sort of unemployed i showed up at school that day with a
2:04
a big bag of eighteen hammers, now i don't know
2:07
if you've ever heard
2:10
with eighteen hammers
2:13
for twenty minutes, but i have
2:15
i'm not gonna do it for you because it's really hard to listen to it
2:19
and what the teacher explained to the kids is
2:21
they must arrange the brads in this certain pattern
2:24
hammering hammering hammering and make sure they're in there nice and firm
2:28
as so these kids are hammering hammering hammering, twenty minutes of zero education just
2:31
twenty minutes of hammering
2:33
the teacher walks over and she says to a boy
2:37
to make sure the brads were all the way in
2:42
by one she pulled them out
2:44
and threw them on the floor every single one
2:47
and put the board down and that
2:50
is what she believed
2:54
was about teaching obedience
2:58
good morning boys and girls
3:05
now i have to move on to frederick j kelly
3:07
some of you brought your own number two pencil for the quiz that is going to be part of
3:12
the number two pencil is famous
3:14
because frederick j kelly made it famous
3:17
back around world war one
3:20
we had a problem which was that ther was this huge influx of students 'cause we'd
3:24
expanded the school date include high school
3:27
and there was this huge need to sort them all out
3:31
the standardized test
3:35
and he gave it up ten years later when the emergency was over
3:38
but because he gave it up because you called it out because he said the
3:42
standardized test is to crude
3:45
he was ostracized and lost his job
3:49
of a university because he dared to speak up
3:56
so let's try a little experiment here, i'd like everyone to go ahead and raise your
3:59
right hand just as high as you possibly can
4:02
now please raise it a little higher
4:05
what's that about (laughter from crowd)
4:08
my instructions were pretty clear and yet you all held back how come? you held back because
4:12
you've been taught since you were three years old to hold a little bit back
4:15
because if you do everything if you put all out
4:18
than your parents or your teacher or your coach or your boss is gonna ask for
4:22
little bit more aren't they
4:25
and the reason they will is because we are products of the industrial age
4:29
the industrial age made us all rich
4:32
the industrial age brought productivity to the table
4:35
productivity allowed human beings working together with a boss and a
4:39
to make more than they could ever make alone
4:41
productivity makes us a car for seven hundred dollars instead of seven hundred
4:50
and industrialism is this
4:53
the people who ran factories
4:55
had two huge problems
4:58
they looked around i said we don't have enough workers
5:00
we don't have enough people who are willing to move off the farm
5:04
and come to this dark building for twelve hours a day
5:07
six days a week and do what they are told
5:10
if we can get more workers we could pay them less
5:12
and if we can pay them less
5:14
we'd make more money
5:15
we need more workers
5:23
industrialists and said you need to get those kids out of the factories those
5:26
people you're paying three dollars a day
5:28
because they're taking our jobs
5:29
and so a deal was made and the deal was universal public education whose sole
5:36
was not to tran the scholars of tomorrow we have plenty of scholars
5:40
it was to train people to be willing
5:43
to work in the factory
5:44
it was to train people
5:50
we process you for a whole year if you are defective we hold you back and process
5:55
we sit you in straight rows just like they organize things
6:04
interchangeable people
6:07
because factories are based on interchangeable parts
6:10
this piece is no good but another piece in there
6:13
and word charts those little boxes
6:15
are all designed to say, oh we can fit bob in there 'cause rachel didn't go
6:20
and so we built school, that's what school was for
6:24
and the second thing industrialists were are really worried about
6:28
was that we weren't going to buy all the stuff that could make
6:31
that in eighteen eighty eighteen ninety people owned two pairs of shoes one pair of
6:36
you don't know anyone
6:38
who owns one pair of jeans anymore, ever
6:41
what they needed to train us to do
6:45
they needed to train us to fit in
6:47
they needed to train us
6:49
to become consumers and so horace mann, who meant well
6:53
built the public school as we know it and they he needed more teachers right
6:57
because you have more schools so he built a school for teachers and you know what it's called
7:02
he called it the normal school where they train people to teach in the common
7:06
school because he wanted you to be normal
7:09
any one of the class to be normal and he wanted people to fit in and then
7:13
we came up with this
7:17
now if you want to teach somebody
7:19
how to become passionate about i don't know american history
7:22
why would you give them this (laughter from crowd)
7:27
do people walk into barnes and noble and say i'm really interested in that latest
7:31
gripping thing that's going to get me all engaged about the civil war do you have one of those
7:37
if you wanted to teach someone
7:39
how to be a baseball fan
7:43
by having them understand the history of baseball and who abner doubleday was and
7:46
what barnstorming was
7:48
and the influences of cricket
7:49
and capitalism and the negro leagues would you do that
7:52
would you say okay there's a test tomorrow i want you to memorize the top fifty
7:59
and then rank and the people
8:02
based at how they do on the test
8:04
so the ones that do well get to memorize more baseball players is that how we
8:09
would create baseball fans here is the key distinction
8:15
quite naturally is if it's work
8:18
they try to figure out how to do less
8:22
we try to figure out how to do more
8:27
kids in the factory we call school
8:32
to indoctrinate them into compliance
8:35
why are we surprised that the question is
8:38
will this be on the test
8:41
someone who is making art
8:42
doesn't say can i do one less canvas this month
8:47
can i write one less song this month
8:50
can i touch one less one fewer person this month
8:53
it's art they want to do more of it
8:56
but when it's work when it's your job when you're seven
9:00
of course you want to do
9:03
so one of the things that i've
9:08
is when i meet people
9:11
this is a great bargain online
9:14
and it's filled with these blocks, you've probably seen blocks before
9:20
and i say take four blocks
9:22
and make them into something interesting
9:25
now it's an interesting question because you can use the letters or you can use the
9:28
shapes or you can spell the word or you can put a profanity there or you could spell a
9:31
word that means nothing you can make the shape into a bridge
9:38
there's no right answer and there's a million wrong answers
9:41
they hate this because there's no dummy's guide
9:44
to how to make something interesting
9:46
out of blocks when you're thirty years old
9:50
we're at a crossroads
9:51
we're at a crossroads because as a culture we stay the only thing we care about
9:56
the only place we are willing to cross the street to go the only thing we are willing to buy the only person
10:00
we are willing to vote for
10:02
the only stuff we are willing to talk about
10:04
is interesting is art
10:08
will touch us is valuable
10:10
and then we spend all of our money
10:13
and all of our time teaching people not to do that
10:17
and so we're now at this crossroads because technology is here too
10:20
and the technology says, you know what
10:22
for the first time in history
10:23
we do not need a human being
10:25
to stand next to us
10:26
to teach us to do square roots
10:28
for the first time in history
10:29
we do not need a human being
10:32
how to sharpen an ax
10:34
because the internet connects us all
10:36
and so i want to share with you eight things that i think are gonna change
10:42
how we want answered this question
10:44
or maybe even if we don't
10:46
one, as sal khan has pointed out
10:52
world-class lecturers lecturing on anything you want to learn
10:56
to every single person in the world who's got an internet connection
10:59
and then all day go sit with a human being a teacher and ask your
11:04
questions and do your work
11:09
to have the same lecture being given handmade
11:12
ten thousand times a day across the country when we can get one person to do it great
11:16
for the people who want to hear it
11:20
open book open note all the time
11:23
there is zero value in memorizing anything ever again
11:28
anything that is worth memorizing is worth looking up
11:32
so we shouldn't spend any time teaching people to memorize stuff
11:36
number three, access to any course anywhere in the world anytime you want to take it
11:40
so this notion that we have to do things less certain order which is based on
11:43
physical location and chronology
11:51
batched stuff that's the way we make it almost everything we buy now
11:55
right it used to be you could have any kind of car you wanted as long as it's black
11:59
so we could keep the assembly line going
12:02
they make ten thousand kinds of cars
12:03
'cause they can so we should make
12:05
ten thousand kinds of education
12:07
no more multiple-choice exams
12:08
those were invented to make them easy to score
12:11
but computers are smarter than that
12:14
measuring experience
12:17
test scores because experience is what we really care about the end of compliance
12:23
the resume is proof that you have complied
12:26
for years and years and years with famous brand names and it gets you you're next job
12:32
and cooperation instead of isolation
12:34
why do we do anything
12:36
where we ask people to do it all by themselves and then we put them in the
12:43
teachers role transforms into coach lifelong work learning
12:48
with work happening earlier in your life
12:51
and really important the death
12:53
of the famous college
12:57
we don't know what a good college is but we know what a famous college is because someone
13:00
ranked them as famous or because they have a football team that is famous
13:03
why on earth are we paying extra why on earth are we working harder
13:06
to comply and be obedient
13:09
just so we get a famous brand name
13:15
to success or happiness
13:17
put after our name, i want to show you one more device i have over here as i
13:24
is called an arduino it's a little bit like a raspberry pie they're both
13:28
electronic devices that cost twenty to thirty dollars each
13:31
raspberry pie which you can buy for twenty five dollars has on it
13:35
the complete linux operating system
13:37
usb port audio out and a monitor
13:41
so if we take that cable
13:43
and that keyboard at that monitor we already have in front of almost every
13:47
kid in this country
13:48
and hand 'em one of these
13:50
we can then say to them go build something interesting
13:55
and ask if you need help
13:57
why wouldn't we want to teach our kids
14:00
to go do something interesting
14:03
why would we want to teach our kids
14:07
and yet everyday we send kids to school and say do not figure it out do not ask
14:12
questions i do not know the answer to do not look it up do not vary from the
14:16
curriculum and better better better better better comply fit in
14:24
do what you're told because i must process you
14:28
because everything in my
14:31
evaluation is based
14:33
on whether or not i processed you properly so there are two myths i want
14:40
and we gotta be really honest with ourselves about this
14:43
myth one great performance in school leads to happiness and success
14:48
if that's not true we should stop telling ourselves it is
14:55
have kids who produce great performance in school
14:59
if that's not true we should stop telling ourselves it is
15:03
are we asking our kids to collect dots
15:09
because we're really good measuring how many dots
15:13
how many facts they have memorized how many boxes they have filled in but we
15:19
about how to connect those dots
15:22
you cannot teach connecting dots in a dummies manual you cannot teach connecting dots
15:30
by putting kids into a situation
15:32
where they can fail grades are an illusion
15:39
your work is more important than your congruence
15:44
persistence in the face
15:46
of the skeptical authority figure
15:50
and yet we undermine it
15:52
fitting in is a short-term strategy that gets you no where standing out
15:56
is a long-term strategy that takes guts
15:58
and produces results
16:02
about your work to be willing to be criticized for it
16:10
what now what should we do because we've been talking about it a whole lot
16:20
what is school for?
16:22
when they say this is our new textbook the question is
16:26
going to help us with getting what school is for
16:30
when they say this is the new superintendent we need to say yes
16:33
but is this superintendent going to help us do what we think school is for
16:37
and if you don't know what school is for than have a conversation about it
16:41
because until we can agree
16:44
we're not going to get
16:47
thank you for the work you do, i appreciate it
