Creative Class

Over at his always interesting, Notes from the Lounge, Julian Sanchez, notes Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and futurist Alvin Toffler concern that the current “factory model” of education is broken beyond repair. Here’s Toffler:

You’ve been writing about our educational system for decades. What’s the most pressing need in public education right now? “Shut down the public education system.”

That’s pretty radical. “I’m roughly quoting (Microsoft chairman) Bill Gates, who said, “We
don’t need to reform the system; we need to replace the system.”

Read the whole Toffler interview here or download here. And read the comments by high-school students here (pointer: Angela Stevens). Trust me it’s worth it.

Ignore the stuff in Julian’s post about Steve Jobs bashing teachers.  Unionization and tenure are symptoms not the cause.  Gallup’s latest studies show that teachers perform extraordinarily well when they are engaged. The problem lies deep in this structure.

Our backs and forth this week on various education issues, plus my
doctoral seminar  Monday evening got me thinking, (always dangerous).
The school system we have now will not survive the transition to the
Creative Age. Peter Drucker said essentially the same thing about the
research university. That does not mean people will cease to learn, do
research and invent. Here’s why.

The Industrial Age because of its underlying logic (Marx) gave rise to
large-scale vertical bureaucracy (Weber). It also suppressed human
self-expression and initiative in favor of control (Freud). Our school
systems, like our factories, large scale organizations, and governments
are in effect structures (“prisons?)” for bureaucratic control.

The Creative Age logic requires something very different – self-expression, flexibility, and individual initiative. Most people understand that  advances in technology and communication allow
for complex coordination without  having to be in the same building, factory or
office.  What they forget is what Robert Lucas taught us about external
economies, Jane Jacobs taught us about diversity and  cities, and most
of all what modern psychology says about self-expression and creativity
(the latter depends on the former).

Put that all together and you can see the need for a very different
system for learning, one that optimizes flexibility over control,
intrinsic reward over extrinsic (grading), lets talent thrive instead
of squelching it, allows self-expression to flourish, challenges
students, and lets them learn asynchronously, on their own time-scale
and work flexibly.    The excuse is that schools are a place for
“socialization” is just that – an excuse.  Most people can socialize in
much more effective ways than pep rallies, ball games, the prom committee, or yearbook planning
(but I digress). The community, broadly defined, can do that much better anyway ala Jane Jacobs.  It already does, as parents seek to supplement what their kids aren’t getting from schools with all sorts of extra-curricular interactions from play-dates and tutors to rock school. Most of the good stuff already happens at the margins.  Gates and Dell both dropped out of college to build their companies in their dorm rooms.  Wonder why.

Our schools are the opposite of what is needed:  hierarchical, mind-numbing,
creativity-squelching machines.  So the need for transformation: But, what
exactly comes next? Toffler is right.  We need to shut the whole thing down.
Let’s no longer confuse real estate, our current education
factories/warehouses with learning.

It’s hard to sketch the system out in advance, but the core principles to build around are readily apparent: a shared curriculum on a technology platform that enables flexible and asynchronous learning anywhere, anyplace, anytime;  challenge and intrinsic reward over grades (and ridiculous standardized tests); community based engagement and socialization;  and a wide range of ala carte instructional offerings. This kind of system is one that simultaneously empowers and enriches students, parents and teachers.

And here’s the kicker, people,  whatever place gets this right has enormous first-mover
advantage. They will.  The underlying economic logic of the Creative Age demands it.  It’s only a matter of time.

Care to weigh in?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Talent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.