9.16.2009

Wagner on YouTube



"No one has done anything wrong." This is what Wagner believes. The problem, or a better word, is that the world has changed. Fundamentally changed, and education has not. The American education system (public and private) is much as it has been over the last 120 years. Very much design (that you Frederick Taylor) to prepare its students for work in an industrial economy (think GM, Xerox, IBM, newspapers). We now have an information society (think Google). Wagner's message is much like what we heard from Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat, Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind, and Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is not a passing pad. This is a fundamental, lasting shift. Just as we could not imagine going back to carbon copies, memeograph machines, and Britannica Worldbook Encyclopedia A-Z, we will not return to a slower, more stable culture. Schools are in a gap and have to adapt. And, it's difficult for lots of reason.

What are the main reasons we find adaptation difficult?
How might we break through in our understanding, our sense of necessity, and our sense of urgency?

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