Thoughts on the future of
education.
For
me it’s about passion, curiosity, imagination, critical thinking, and grit.
1. Passion: You’d be amazed
at how many people don’t have a mission in life… A calling… something to jolt
them out of bed every morning. The most valuable resource for humanity is the
persistent and passionate human mind, so creating a future of passionate kids
is so very important. For my 7-year-old boys, I want to support them in finding
their passion or purpose… something that is uniquely theirs. In the same way
that the Apollo program and Star Trek drove my early love for all things space,
and that passion drove me to learn and do.
2. Curiosity: Curiosity is
something innate in kids, yet something lost by most adults during the course
of their life. Why? In a world of Google, robots, and AI, raising a kid
that is constantly asking questions and running “what if” experiments can be
extremely valuable. In an age of machine learning, massive data, and a trillion
sensors, it will be the quality of your questions that will be most important.
3. Imagination: Entrepreneurs
and visionaries imagine the world (and the future) they want to live in, and
then they create it. Kids happen to be some of the most imaginative humans
around… it’s critical that they know how important and liberating imagination
can be.
4. Critical Thinking: In a world flooded
with often-conflicting ideas, baseless claims, misleading headlines, negative
news, and misinformation, learning the skill of critical thinking helps find
the signal in the noise. This principle is perhaps the most difficult to teach
kids.
5. Grit/Persistence: Grit is defined
as “passion and perseverance in pursuit of long-term goals,” and it has
recently been widely acknowledged as one of the most important predictors of
and contributors to success.
Module
1: Storytelling/Communications
When I think about the skill that has served me best in life,
it’s been my ability to present my ideas in the most compelling fashion
possible, to get others onboard, and support birth and growth in an innovative
direction. In my adult life, as an entrepreneur and a CEO, it’s been my ability
to communicate clearly and tell compelling stories that has allowed me to
create the future. I don’t think this lesson can start too early in life. So
imagine a module, year after year, where our kids learn the art and practice of
formulating and pitching their ideas. The best of oration and storytelling.
Module
2: Passions
A modern school should help our children find and explore their
passion(s). Passion is the greatest gift of self-discovery. It is a source of
interest and excitement, and is unique to each child.
The key to finding passion is exposure. Allowing kids to
experience as many adventures, careers, and passionate adults as possible
Module
3: Curiosity
& Experimentation
Einstein famously said, “I have no special talent. I am only
passionately curious.” Curiosity is innate in children, and many times lost
later in life. Arguably, it can be said that curiosity is responsible for all
major scientific and technological advances; it’s the desire of an individual
to know the truth.
Coupled with curiosity is the process of experimentation and
discovery. The process of asking questions, creating and testing a hypothesis,
and repeated experimentation until the truth is found. As I’ve studied the most
successful entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies, from Google and Amazon
to Uber, their success is significantly due to their relentless use of
experimentation to define their products and services.
Here I imagine a module which instills in children the
importance of curiosity and gives them permission to say, “I don’t know, let’s
find out.”
Module
4: Persistence/Grit
Doing anything big, bold, and significant in life is hard work.
You can’t just give up when the going gets rough. The mindset of persistence,
of grit, is a learned behavior I believe can be taught at an early age,
especially when it’s tied to pursuing a child’s passion.
I imagine a curriculum that, each week, studies the career of a
great entrepreneur and highlights their story of persistence. It would
highlight the individuals and companies that stuck with it, iterated, and
ultimately succeeded.
Module
5: Empathy
Empathy, defined as “the ability to understand and share the
feelings of another,” has been recognized as one of the most critical skills
for our children today. And while there has been much written, and great
practices for instilling this at home and in school, today’s new tools
accelerate this.
Module
6: Ethics/Moral
Dilemmas
Related to empathy, and equally important, is the goal of
infusing kids with a moral compass. Over a year ago, I toured a special school
created by Elon Musk (the Ad Astra school) for his five boys (age 9 to 14). One
element that is persistent in that small school of under 40 kids is the
conversation about ethics and morals, a conversation manifested by debating
real-world scenarios that our kids may one day face.
Module
7: The
3R Basics (Reading, wRiting & aRithmetic)
There’s no question that young children entering kindergarten
need the basics of reading, writing, and math. The only question is what’s the
best way for them to get it? We all grew up in the classic mode of a teacher at
the chalkboard, books, and homework at night. But I would argue that such
teaching approaches are long outdated, now replaced with apps, gameplay, and
the concept of the flip classroom
Module
8: Language
One of the areas I found fascinating is how some of the most
advanced parents are teaching their kids new languages: through games. On the
tablet, the kids are allowed to play games, but only in French. A child’s
desire to win fully engages them and drives their learning rapidly.
