This 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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 6 Ratings

Taking learning seriously - 2008-12-12
Reviewer Rating:
In modern America, everyone and his brother believes that the educational system is broken. But most people suggest responding with more of the same, rather than rethinking what learning is actually about.
When the economy does well, people claim that it must be because of the education system and propose spending more money. When it does poorly, people say that it must be because we don't spend enough on education and propose spending more.

Ackoff and Greenberg go back to first principals, and to daily experiences, to consider how people learn, and how education might be restructured.
What they propose really does turn the modern vision of school on its head. Why do schools in the US -- the land of the free and the home of the brave -- condition children to be passive and to wait on authority?

There is only one suggestion or conclusion that I question. There is an argument posited by one of the authors (Ackoff, I think) for an elaborate voucher system. However, the history of governments' tendency to want to manage how government money is spent would likely crush the innovation that is needed -- pushing and encouraging private schools to recoil further from innovation and the cutting edge, and thereby eliminating the laboratories for reform of education.
That said, the appeal for a voucher system is a very secondary aspect of the book, and does not distract from the arguments, message, and information.

Education - 2008-09-02
Reviewer Rating:
Outstanding and revolutionary insights that must be considered by policy makers around the world. The emphasis is on the learner and not on the teacher, as it should be. Although not explicit, these concepts are in the back of our mind as we search for explanations to our own most rewarding learning experiences.

My review of Turning Learning Right Side Up - 2009-03-05
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent ideas! The concepts and theories affirmed my beliefs and practices in the classroom.

Making You Think - 2009-01-16
Reviewer Rating:
If you have wondered about our educational system and why we do things, this is the book for you to read. It provides you with ideas as well as examples of their philosophy in action. This book will give rise to questions of your own you will be impassioned to research. Their arguments are well researched and supported. They also make a great deal of sense especially in reguards to how our world operates now and how it is rapidly changing. Enjoy!

Too much help - 2008-10-24
Reviewer Rating:
I have been a fan of Ackhoff's work for years and years. He is an expert analyst and exceptional writer. I love Ackhoff's best but consider this to be Ackhoff's worst. Perhaps his co-author had too much to do with this book.

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