Reverb Consulting

My fortune today:

You will accomplish more if you start now.

Sir Ken Robinson spoke at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conference in February of 2006. The TED Conference is dedicated to new ideas and thinking that can change the world. You can view his talks and hundred of others at Ted.com. I enjoy watching Sir Ken’s Ted talk when I need to be reminded of the importance of enduring the hard process of change. I find listening to him reminds me of the goal, the purpose, the reason it all matters: our kids’ futures.

Below is my synopsis of his talk. Read, re-read, and re-read it again. To me, it’s logical; it’s emotional; it’s a call to action. I ask myself what is my part, what can I do?

• There is enormous capacity and potential in human creativity, especially for those who make it to adulthood with creativity.
• Kids have innate and enormous capacity for creativity.
• We have no infallible, certain idea of what the future will bring.
• Education is meant to take us into this unknown future.
• All kids have unique talent and we squander it.
• Creativity is an important literacy — we don’t think of it that way. Why not?
• Kids are not frightened of being wrong at the beginning of school.
• If we are not prepared to be wrong, then we will never have anything original to contribute.
• By adulthood, most are afraid of being wrong.
• This is how we raise kids and run our companies.
• We are educating people out of their creative capacity.
• There is hierarchy of education: Math and language. Humanities. Art………first art/music then drama/dance.
• Education focuses on left-brain skills.
• These skills were most valuable in the Industrial Age.
• We are no longer in the Industrial Age.
• The education system places importance on academic ability.
• It is designed to get into college and then get a job in the industrial company.
• There is evidence of a tremendous shift in education now, as the traditional degrees are now worthless.
• MFA is the new MBA because of how it trains one to think.
• We need to re-think how we understand intelligence.
• Intelligence is diverse.
• Intelligence is dynamic creativity (generate original ideas that at worth something).
• Intelligence is distinct for each individual.
• We need to question the fundamental principles of education.
• Our job is to help kids make something of their future.

Sir Ken Robinson was the keynote speaker Thursday, February 28 in New York at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Annual Conference. For those of us who got to hear him, what a delight! His dry wit and humor balances the gravity of his message. His basic message in is briefest form is this:

-the future is upon us right now and what we do about it matters.
-creativity is a critical skill for 21st century competence.
-Kids are naturally creative; schools seems to drain kids of their creativity.

As a beginning place to start to the process of changing schools and the environment they engender, Sir Ken suggests we alter how we think in the broadest sense about our schools; he suggests we change our school metaphor from the factory to the living, dynamic, ever-changing organism. It seems like a simple thought, perhaps even a simplistic thought. But, with some reflection and with effort to fill in some thought gaps, let me add something connecting thoughts and guiding questions.

How are factories in general faring in today’s economy? Think about GM and all of its integrated production facilities and its current state of affairs, for one.
How quickly do factories adapt to evidenced need in the marketplace?
What mindset and basic assumptions govern the culture and systems at factories?
What new factory business is present in today’s culture and marketplace? Where is factory business migrating to?
Are the prominent, energetic companies today less product-oriented and more idea and information oriented? Think about Google, Yahoo, Facebook, My Space, the whole “Wikinomics” boom — is there much likelihood that this type of industry (information and idea production) is a passing fad?
Are we teaching our kids to produce ideas?
Of what use is a new metaphor or a new way of thinking about our schools? How does a new metaphor expand our thinking and understanding?

Let me offer the words of Peter Senge, social scientist and philosopher, author of Presence, to introduce the power of the living organism as a apt metaphor.

How does a tree come from a tiny seed?

It’s common to say that trees come from seeds. But how can a tiny seed create a huge tree? Seeds do not contain the resources needed to grow a tree. These must come from the medium or the environment within which the tree grows. But, the seed does provide something that is crucial: a place where the whole of the tree starts to form. As resources such as water and nutrients are drawn in, the seed organizes the process that generates growth. In a sense, the seed is a gateway through which the future possibility of the living tree emerges.

Changing the way we think as individuals and organizations about the future and how best to prepare for it is the first action step needed. Leading our thoughts and the thoughts of the people we work with in schools — asking new questions, developing new metaphorical understanding — is the seed that begets the possibility of the future. The seed, or school leadership, is crucial in directing our organizations to sustainable futures. But, as Senge describes, the seed is only half of the process. The seed cannot survive and grow without a seedbed that accepts and nurtures it. To me, this is our big dual challenge. To re-consider and re-fine the needs of the future. Quantifying that forms the seed. Then, we must plant that seed with its powerful ideas and their potential into a culture that is accepting, embracing, and nurturing. The seed is activated by the nourishment and caretaking of the culture. A toxic seedbed does not hold the future possibility of a living thing.

What does Alan Greenspan have to say about education in his new book,
The Age of Turbulence? Quite simple: there is dysfunction of education in US.

The education disaster can not be penned on the quality of our
children. American children test above average at younger grades but
not during high school.

Rapidly changing world of today increases importance of lifelong learning.
Formal education has become a lifetime endeavor.
Often supplied by corporations to fill their specific needs

While our universities and community colleges have responded
impressively, in recent decades our elementary and secondary schools
have not.

Unless quality of elementary and secondary schools is brought up to
world class, colleges will have to depend on immigrants to maintain
their high levels of performance or sink into mediocracy.

Aging and retirement will decrease the supply of skilled workers. If
these skilled workers can not be replaced then the wage differential
between skilled and unskilled workers will increase. If these skilled
workers can not be replaced then our ability to maintain technological
leadership in the world will cease.

One of the skills too many HS grads lack is proficiency in is math.
It is that skill more than any other that is required to achieve
skilled job status.

Math teachers with degrees and expertease in math are increasingly less common .
A ‘00 study: 40% of public school math teachers do not have a degree in math.

Single salary schedule in education contributes to poor performance in math.
It is ’senseless, yet the norm.’
Flat pay scale when demand is not flat is price fixing.

Opportunities for those with math/science expertease outside of the
education field are greater than for those with expertese in other
areas. Since teacher pay is same without regard to subject, then the
quality of math/science teacher is worse than the quality of other
fields.

This is one of many bureaucratic impediments to the function of market
forces in education. Proposals to remedy this dysfunctional state
are gaining traction
An example is Math for America.

Enhancing elementary and secondary school’s sensitivity to market
forces should help restore the balance between the demand for and the
supply of skilled workers in US

Mentions as positive the following examples:

Rose and Milton Friedman efforts with vouchers for education.

Hamilton Project at the Brookings Inst. that shows little correlation
between teaching credentials and teacher effectiveness.

Study in LA that showed weeding out worst 25% of teachers incresed
test scores at graduation by 14%

If large number of students continue to be ‘left behind’ then the
following will occur:

There will be exaggeration of income concentration.
There won’t be enough supply of skilled workers required for our
economy to maintain technology leadership

Solution is one of the following:

Allow more skilled workers to immigrate
Reform education in US

If the US is to continue to engage the world and improve its standard
of living then it will either have to improve education or allow
enough skilled workers to immigrate.

Restrictive immigration policy gives the native born skilled workers
protection. This keeps their wage rate artifically high and
intensives the the income gap between skilled and unskilled workers.