Book Review: Stop Stealing Dreams

Book Review - Seth Godin’s  Stop Stealing Dreams http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/docs/StopStealingDreamsSCREEN.pdf

Public school began in earnest in the last century as a place to prepare students to be workers in the hourly wage earning factory jobs which was the bulk of available work at that time.  Sitting in rows, doing mundane tasks, and obediently following authority prepared students for the repetitive factory jobs they would one day be performing.  One hundred years later, factories have closed or outsourced their manufacturing to other countries with cheaper and more cooperative labor forces.  Access to information at the touch of a button has done away with the need for rote memorization of vast stores of facts and trivia.  

But public school systems which began based on this system have not changed their working model since they have been in existence.  Today we are preparing students for jobs that have not even been invented using a factory/manufacturing model of a century ago.  We know this model does not work for our current needs.  But what do modern schools need to be doing to prepare students to enter the workforce which continues to change?  This is a problem tackled in Seth Godin’s manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams.

This piece of writing really served to confirm for me what an inquiry-based curriculum can do for students, and the things we are getting *right* at Anglo American School.  Being allowed to work as part of a team, to raise questions they are passionate about finding answers to, then accessing and synthesizing information and learning to create and innovate--these are the skills that will prepare students for the future.  While I recommend reading Stop Stealing Dreams for yourself, here are a few of the main points (pertaining to Elementary Education) that  I gleaned from it if you are short on time.

1. Schools were designed as “holding places” for young laborers to keep them from taking adult factory jobs.  They were taught to sit in rows, follow directions, and mind authority--all things to prepare them to be good factory workers when they became old enough.
2. When access to data was limited, knowing  vast amounts of facts was relevant.  What is relevant in the information age?
3. “We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate. And just as important, it’s vital we acknowledge that we can unteach bravery and creativity and initiative. And that we have been doing just that.”
4. Modern success requires not “compliant cogs” in an industrial complex, but rather innovators.  Education should “ inculcate leadership and restlessness into a new generation” where micro-organizations with many leaders are the norm.
5. In the age of connectedness, why would we want learning in isolation in a classroom?  No competent doctor says “I don’t know what to do; I’ll figure it out by myself.”
6. Fear can be a motivator to learn, or passion can be a motivator to learn.  Which would you rather use?
7. The jobs of the future are in two categories: the downtrodden assemblers of cheap mass goods and the respected creators of the unexpected.
8. In a world of outsourcing, more skilled obedient workers just mean more unemployed.  Creators and innovators create jobs for themselves and others.
9. Dreamers also require willpower (or perseverance or grit) to achieve their dreams.  How do we teach willpower?
10. The notion that each of us can assemble a network (of people, of data sources, of experiences) that will make us either smart or stupid—that’s brand new and important.  How do we teach networking?
11. In an age of information, “the ability to synthesize complex ideas and to invent new concepts is far more useful than drill and practice.”
12. Leadership is a gradual process in which you practice responsibility years before you are given authority.
13. Teach kids how to lead.  Help kids learn how to solve interesting problems.
14. So what is the role of the teacher, if it is not to impart knowledge?  Coaching. When a teacher sells the journey and offers support, the student will figure it out. Cheerleading--believing in the student and cheering them on.