Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World by Tony WagnerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Call to Reinvent Education
It took me a while to finish this book. However, it was worth reading. It talks about Passion, Play, and Purpose quite a lot. And what struck me was this statement by Robert A. Compton, in the Afterword, "Although expensive for our society, school was hardly a stirring experience." This was across the board of interviewees. Most of the young innovators thrived in spite of and not because of the school system. I saw this as a call to reinvent education. This will not be easy. But Wagner lays out some pointers, like when he described the learning principles at the Olin Graduate School of Business: "a strong emphasis on collaboration (versus individual achievement); multidisciplinary learning (versus specialization); and an emphasis on creating things and student empowerment (versus passively consuming knowledge); encouragement of intellectual risk-taking and trial and error (versus risk avoidance); and finally, a strong emphasis on intrinsic (versus extrinsic) motivation, with the absence of grades and the faculty's focus on encouraging students to pursue their passions." Another thing that struck me was how the most effective mentors for innovators were tinkerers. Usually, these teachers are not tenured. Which is ironic, because it seems that they are the ones who are most effective in inspiring innovation. For a parent, this was funny: "You can't separate innovation from disobedience. But you can't be an innovator and rob banks." LOL. Annmarie Neal, one of the interviewees, talks about two rules for her kids: safety and character, "so long as he is careful (comparatively) and caring --meaning he is a good person. Everything else is up for grabs-- sometimes literally." So, schools, teachers, and parents have their work cut out for them. The question is: how long do we have to wait to pivot?
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