Friday, May 30, 2014

Stop stealing dreams

"If you want to teach someone how to be  a baseball fan would you start by having them understand the history of baseball...who Abner Doubleday was..the influence of cricket...would you do that..would you say ok here is a test...I want you to memorize the top 50 batters in order by batting average...and then rank the people based on how they do on the test so once you do well you get to memorize more baseball players...is that how we would create baseball fans?"
"Here is the key distinction: what people do quite naturally if it is work they try figure out how to do less, if it is art we try figure out how to do more. And when we put kids in the factory we call school, the thing we built to indoctrinate them into compliance, why are we surprised that the question is: will this be on the test? Someone that is making art doesn't say can I do one less canvas this month? They don't say can I write one less song?"
"Until we can't agree on what school is for, we are not going to get what we need"
The economy has changed, probably forever. School hasn't. School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer. In this 30,000 word manifesto, Seth Godin imagines a different set of goals and starts a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting. Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo.
(from Squidoo)
Seth Godin is the author of 14 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. His free ebook on what education is for is called STOP STEALING DREAMS and it's been downloaded millions of times since it launched in January, 2012. In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them. Excellent presentation.

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