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The reality is, as Orrin Woodward put it: "If everyone
agrees with what you're doing, it isn't innovative."
The growing Global
Achievement Gap in our schools, as outlined by Tony Wagner's book of this
title, presents an ominous warning for Americans.
We can change things if we
choose, Wagner says, by adopting the following values and skills in our school
curriculum: critical thinking, agility, adaptability, initiative, curiosity,
imagination and entrepreneurialism, among others.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan quoted Wagner in Foreign Affairs:
"...there is a happy
'convergence between the skills most needed in the global knowledge economy and
those most needed to keep our economy safe and vibrant.'"
He also foreshadowed
the decades ahead by quoting President Obama:
"The nation that out-educates us
today is going to out-compete us tomorrow."
It is difficult to imagine our public schools meeting these
lofty needs if our teachers are expected to be anything but entrepreneurial,
innovative and agile, when they in fact work in an environment that discourages
and at times punishes precisely such behaviors.
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Social Leader Daily by Oliver DeMille
