Educating the Future…
For some time now, I’ve been committed to the idea that education needs serious disruption. I’ve worked with friends to edit their articles on the topic since the age of 19. I’ve constantly read about the state of education in America and some of the thoughts about how Education works worldwide. There have been discussions and debates — with participants in the US Government who feel very strongly about the positive outcomes of US Education policy. I’ve also had the good fortune to speak with countless teachers and more than a few principles. Even after more than a decade now of testing and vetting ideas with others — I still haven’t seen anything truly novel arising in the debate.
Until now…
Yesterday, a revelation became clear to me. Epiphanies like this often happen during unexpected moments. Sometimes, it’s because of a story I’m reading. Other times, this experience happens during a movie, or while playing a game with others, or in the middle of a deep discussion with another. In any event, these things happen unexpectedly and suddenly I realize — well that’s something different.
Project Management 101
So, it’s probably worth noting that I work with people to establish project management methods for corporations. In the world of project management — there are two main popular approaches:
* Waterfall
* Agile
Waterfall is called “waterfall” because it looks just like that. You start at the beginning of the “lifetime” of the project in the upper left of your “schedule” and you progressively work your way downward through tasks and activities until you reach the end of the lifetime of the project. Imagine a stream running down a hill as you watch it from the side. Waterfall project management in a nutshell. The most important thing to remember about this method however is that you start your project with the end in mind. You literally know where you intend to end up, and you’re pretty confident that you know what it is going to take to get you there. A great example of this is the effort to build a dam across a river. After some planning in the beginning, and assuming you know all about the materials and people required to build a dam — it’s a pretty clear path from the beginning to the end. Building a new skyscraper is pretty similar to this.
Agile, on the other hand, is called agile, because you have to address unexpected change throughout the life of your project and therefore you need to respond in an agile way to these changes by course correcting throughout. Unlike a waterfall — which normally follows it’s course down the hill pretty consistently — agile is more like crossing the ocean. Sure, you know you want to get to the other side, but the exact plot of steps that it will take you is imperfect by nature. Storms, currents, the speed of your ship, your ability to identify where you are at any given moment, wave action — in sum, a variety of external variables directly affect your ability to project how you are going to cross the ocean.
Ok, so…what does this have to do with educating the future? I’m glad you asked. A quick study of the history of education points out some interesting and notable things about how education is designed to be conducted…
- Education is structured with the end in mind
- Educators perceive each student as being more or less like each other student
- Education appears to have a consistent resultant path
- Education is time bound — the path is supposed to take from kindergarten until the end of the 4th year of college for most people
- Education involves a known and fairly consistent set of resources (materials and people)
- If you throw more money at the problem, you usually expect to get better quality outcomes
- It essentially looks like a waterfall that we all start on roughly at the age of 5 and roughly ending at the age of 21 to 22
Ok — now I’m completely terrified by the enormity of the deficiency in this approach. Are we building a dam here or are we building a successful human being who started with unlimited potential and an uncharted destiny? Apparently we are building a dam — because this approach definitely looks like a well understood waterfall project. Taken at face value, this approach seems to assume that we are all on the exact same river going down the exact same hill.
I respectfully disagree…
Every single human being is crossing an ocean. Every single ocean is unique and different that every single human being is crossing. Although some of us may have somewhat similar ships, others of us are driving cars across this ocean. Some are on flying carpets. A few are flying on their own. Another few are walking on the bottom and — in fact — having absolutely no trouble breathing while doing so. I have to say — the number of ways that each and everyone one of us approach our ocean is as boundless as our own imagination. What’s troubling, of course, about this is that we haven’t even been taught the rules of navigating oceans…
Maybe it’s for us to work out the rules on our own, you say? You know, that’s like saying we shouldn’t share with one another the various science and beliefs that we have found for ourselves over the course of all of human existence. I’m not saying that no one learns or formulates a set of rules on their own for crossing the ocean. Of course, many do. But, why limit the potential of any one person by not bothering to teach them the rules. How many more times do we have to hear from one of our friends — if only I had known then what I know now. Hey — I’m not against life experience — but why shouldn’t we be sharing ours more fully with one another — which leads me to a new assertion after all this talk of oceans…
Educating in the Future must be Agile…
So, there’s a theme here. We are all crossing oceans. We all have uncharted destinies. We have some idea of what it is that we want to do with our ship for the moment and maybe for the next few moments (let’s call them sprints or course corrections if you’d like to keep it nautical). We need to achieve some waypoints that we can have confidence in so that we are assured that we are still heading in the intended direction (let’s call them releases or for the nautical theme — ports). Why you ask? Because…
- Education can’t be structured with the end in mind — we don’t know where we are going at the beginning of our education…
- Educators should not perceive each student as being more or less like each other student — human beings are as individual and limitless as stars in the sky…
- Education does absolutely not have a consistent resultant path — each of us needs to constantly course correct to move toward our goals and our goals may change along the way…
- Education is timeless — the path should not be supposed to take from kindergarten until the end of the 4th year of college for most people — the pace of change in our world has exceeded the bounds of education’s ability to time-block knowledge — we will always need to learn…
- Education does not involve a known or fairly consistent set of resources (materials and people) — the resources (materials and people) needed to achieve each of our individual educational needs varies completely and exponentially, this should not be a deciding factor in our ability to achieve our potential…
- If you throw more money at the problem, you can not expect to get better quality outcomes — money is not the answer, it can help, but it can be grossly wasted as well — the approach is the problem and must change so that money can be committed in the most valuable way…
- It looks nothing like a waterfall and we don’t all start at the same time nor end at the same time of roughly 5 thru 21 or 22 — education looks agile and should be treated as such…
It’s time to unlock all of our potential…
There is absolutely no excuse for us to not take action. We are advancing into a period where doing the same things we have done for millennia is no longer appropriate. We are facing a leap — a leap in technology — a leap in opportunity — a leap in exploration — a quantum leap in how we operate in the world and what is expected of us. To be ready for this new world — we have to change the way we think of our own education and the way that we think about educating others.
I’m not the first person who has said some of these things, and, I’m sure I won’t be the last. I’m just one more voice calling for attention to this new paradigm and asking you to join me in trying to make the shift. The world isn’t going to slow down for us…
We’ve been here before though. There was a time when no one was aware that the western hemisphere definitively existed — and then we did. A huge leap was achieved. We circumnavigated the world. We learned countless new things about the planet we live on. We became explorers for nearly 10 generations (give or take — 500 years), and only recently have we slowed down for a little bit. Every one of those explorers from our recent past participated in this agile education that I’m suggesting today. Every one of those explorers was forced to confront the unknown and to find ways to overcome that and to find ways to succeed. We need to be explorers again…
Cheers
John-Michael Scott
Futurist, Entrepreneur and some other stuff…
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