Education doesn't "do" enough
13 Nov 2010Before coming back to school for my MBA I taught 5th and 6th graders outside, mostly in National Parks. It was always stunning how few of them had really experienced the natural world. In fact, it was kind of depressing. What's worse is that I fear many of them, much like most MBA's, don't "do" enough in the classroom.
We sit, we "listen", we occasionally say something smart, and then we go back to checking our blackberry or daydreaming depending on our age. I can count the number of impactful experiences I've had in the business school classroom on one hand. Honestly, that's fine with me because I've done plenty of experiential learning outside the classroom and will continue to do so once employed because I'm to the point that I understand that is how I learn the best. The problem is that many people don't, especially 5th graders.
So how do we build experiential learning into a curriculm filled with standarized testing? In a way, we're trying to catch up to China and India's math and science skills. (Check out Freakonomics for some interesting facts about how kids there go to school for 1.5x the time that kids here go to for and then you understand a piece of the gap) We'll never get there. I haven't seen "waiting for superman" yet but I know they talk about American students being the most confident in being smart even though we rank like 35th. And many of my friends and wife have talked about how bad that is.
I argue that is what America's entrepreneurial culture has been built on. It's that belief that we can do things others see as impossible that's made our country what it is. That understanding of our true capability doesn't come from a standized test, it comes from rapid prototyping and getting something real out to the world. Kids don't often do that in school, but they increasingly have the opportunity and tools to do it on the internet. As those two merge it's going to be interesting to see what happens.
Reader Comments (1)
WangK Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is procured.
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