OverviewThis is the Safari online edition of the printed book.
In the age of the Internet, we educate
people much as we did during the Industrial Revolution. We educate
them for a world that no longer exists, instilling values
antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. Worst of
all, too many schools extinguish the very creativity and joy they
ought to nourish.
In Turning Learning Right Side Up,
legendary systems scientist Dr. Russell Ackoff and
"in-the-trenches" education innovator Daniel Greenberg
offer a radically new path forward. In the year's most
provocative conversation, they take on the very deepest questions
about education: What should be its true purpose? Do classrooms
make sense anymore? What should individuals contribute to their own
education? Are yesterday's distinctions between subjects--and
between the arts and sciences--still meaningful? What would the
ideal lifelong education look like--at K-12, in universities, in
the workplace, and beyond?
Ackoff and Greenberg each have experience
making radical change work--successfully. Here, they combine deep
idealism with a relentless focus on the real world--and arrive at
solutions that are profoundly sensible and powerfully
compelling.
Why today's educational system
fails--and why
superficial reforms won't
help
The questions politicians won't ask--and the
answers they don't want to hear
How do people learn--and why do they
choose to learn?
Creating schools that reflect what we
know about learning
In a 21st century democracy, what values
must we nurture?
...and why aren't we nurturing
them?
How can tomorrow's "ideal
schools" be operated
and funded?
A plan
that cuts through political gridlock and can
actually
work
Beyond schools: building a society of
passionate
lifelong learners
Learning from
childhood to college to workplace
through retirement
Reinventing Learning
for the Next Century:
How We
Can,
and Why We Must
An
extraordinary conversation about the very deepest
questions...
Today, what is education
for?
Where
should it take place? How? When?
What is
the ideal school?
The ideal
lifelong learning experience?
Who
should be in charge of education?
And who
pays for it all?
Over the past 150 years, virtually
everything has changed...except education. Schools were designed as
factories, to train factory workers. The factories are gone, but
the schools haven't changed. It's time for us to return
to first principles...or formulate new first principles...and
reimagine education from the ground up.
In Turning Learning Right Side Up,
two of this generation's most provocative thinkers--and
practical doers--have done just that. They draw on the latest
scientific research, the most enduring human wisdom, and their
unique lifelong personal experiences transforming institutions that
resist change. And, along the way, they offer a powerful blueprint
for a thriving society of passionate lifelong learners.
