The Return of Craftmanship - Education Is Horked, Part 4

This is Part 4 in my continuing series, Education Is Horked. Previously I wrote about my thesis on the state of US education, The Myth Of The Career, and Questioning Everything. It is my hope to get people thinking about the tectonic shift happening under our feet and what part education plays in our ability to embrace the new world we find ourselves in.

When I was growing up, I remember taking field trips to re-created colonial villages. There would be the inevitable boring talks about life in the particular period where things were so much more difficult than it is today. Everyone's eyes would glaze over as someone dressed up like a pilgrim droned on. At some point, however, things would get interesting. You would visit the blacksmith shop, or the glass blower or the weaver. Watching these people make something useful from raw materials was simply fascinating to me. There was no factory, no machines. Just a craftsman at work, bending metal or sculpting glass or making beautiful clothing with their hands and a few tools. These people were not generalists, they were specialists. And the economy of the day was dependent upon there being the right specialists in each town.

These craftsmen almost always had apprentices. Whether it was their son or daughter, or a young person from the community desiring to learn the craft, the craftsman would teach the next generation everything they knew in the hopes of leaving a legacy.

We are in a new era, in my opinion, of craftsmanship in the best possible meaning of the word. After 100 years of assembly-line jobs and careers, we can again start training the next generation for the new craftsmanship. Whether its web design, architecture, or even glass blowing and hand woven garments, there is an incredible opportunity to re-create the old world village of craftsmen. The difference is that today, the entire globe is your village. If you make incredible hand-blown glass, you no longer have to rely on some store to sell your goods. You can sell them directly. If you write music, you can create your own audience. The possibilities are limitless.

I was in Zurich this past week and stumbled upon an amazing chocolatier in one of the back streets of the old section of the city. Not only did I buy some chocolate to bring home, but I can buy that same chocolate over the web any time I want. This was impossible just 15 years ago. A Swiss chocolatier can continue with their craft, and I can benefit from the U.S.

If this is true, how does it change the way we educate? It seems to me that there is a tremendous opportunity to radically change the way we think about what constitutes an education. If a child shows an interest or aptitude for working with their hands, having them apprentice with a builder would be a way to introduce them to the profession very early on. Or, if a child is a computer wizard, getting them into a software apprenticeship would give them an opportunity to see how the professionals use their talents to create software to sell. The same things principles to music or any other industry.

I am not suggesting at all that we should abandon traditional subjects. Teaching math, reading, writing and science are as important as ever. However, I think it would be an interesting exercise to devote perhaps a half a day to traditional school work, and the second half of the day to apprenticeships. This would require the participation of businesses and organizations in the vicinity of a school ( ideally ), and a commitment to teach the next generation what it takes to succeed. I could see the apprenticeships being just as much a part of the grading scale as the three Rs.

Imagine a sixth or seventh grade student spending two hours a day in an architecture office or a music studio. Or a ninth or tenth grader working at a startup software company, even if all they are doing is getting lunch and maybe testing software. The experience would be unlike anything they would ever get working at McDonalds, that is for sure. Yes, it would be distracting at times. But, just like the blacksmith or glass blower, the skills you possess are unique, and they should not die with you.

Instead of focusing on cranking out another generation of factory workers, I think the focus belongs on a return to craftsmanship.

Do you think you have a craft, and if so, how are you teaching the next generation? What do you think about the idea of apprenticeships in primary and secondary school?

Why Elections Matter

I am not going to join the fracas over the passage of the health care bill. What needs to be said on both sides of the issue has already been said many times.

My only comment is that this is why elections matter, and why we should never take lightly the commitments and promises made by those running for our most influential offices. President Obama pledged to pass health care reform, and he did it. You can like it, or not like it, but he did what he said he was going to do. You have to commend his ability to make this happen, regardless of your thoughts for the actual legislation.

The impact of yesterday will be felt for decades. Historically, the budgetary impact analysis done at the time of passage is off exponentially to what is actually required to fund this sort of initiative. We can all be sure that we will all be asked to pay in more from what we make as this takes flight. Regardless of what was said, it is inevitable. It may not be in income tax, but it will happen.

I hope that those that voted for passage of this bill are prepared to live with the decision and be judged in the context of history. They may be right, they may be wrong. I have my opinions, but they are nothing more than that.

Question Everything - Education Is Horked Part 3

This is Part 3 in my continuing series, Education Is Horked. Previously I wrote about my thesis on the state of US education and The Myth Of The Career. It is my hope to get people thinking about the tectonic shift happening under our feet and what part education plays in our ability to embrace the new world we find ourselves in.

What is the capitol of the state of Montana? Who is the 32nd president of the United States? Did you know the answer to either one without doing a web search? I didn't. But it took me about 3 seconds to find the answer to each question. In primary schools across the US, we spend valuable time in the classroom learning the facts about our country. This time is spent every day, in every classroom. Think about how much time is actually consumed nationwide on just these two things.

Now, take those two questions and ask them a different way. Give three reasons why the settling of the state of Montana is important to the fabric of the United States. Why was Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal so well received, even though it radically affected the reach of the Federal government into our personal lives?

The first approach teaches someone to look at facts and spit them back out. Is this an important skill, when literally any fact is less than three seconds away? Is asking "what" nearly as important as asking "why"? Kids want to know "why" about everything. Why do I have to do this? Why did that happen? And yet, in school, we spend a tremendous amount of time telling them just the facts.

Being able to contextualize data and discern it's true meaning. I would submit that there is no more valuable skill than this particular one, regardless of your occupation. In researching the two questions I posed above, I would probably find that Roosevelt was the 32nd President, and that Helena was the capitol of Montana. I would also have context about each piece of data. I would learn about the Great Depression, what a depression is, what might have caused it, poverty, war, the resiliency of the country, and the lasting effects of decisions like creating Social Security.

Maybe it's your opinion that a first grader cannot be expected to answer these kinds of questions, or that learning facts is important as a skill. And, you might be right. I am not an educator. What I do know is that the effect of the current methodology is seen in the high school students that I interact with every basketball season. Kids want to be told what to do in every situation. "If this happens, what do I do?" I inevitably answer this question with "What do you think you should do?" The blank stare I get back shows the lack of ability to take data in ( facts ) and apply it in different ways depending on the situation.

My point in all of this is that it's time to question everything about how we are educating our kids. Why do we ask our kids to memorize the presidents of the United States? Or the state capitols?

Is there a better way to teach the skills kids really need, while weaving facts into the discussion? Is there a better model for education than putting 30 kids in a room and trying to teach them all the same thing the same way? What would it look like to have radically different days in primary, middle and high school? What if your kids spent their days taking classes online instead of in a classroom? What if teachers were freelance educators, teaching the areas of their expertise to smaller, more targeted groups of students rather than larger classrooms?

I would love to hear what you think.

This is 40

Today was one of those days where each time you turn around something else seems really wrong. It's also one of those days where you are thankful for another day of health and opportunity.

In the small school where my daughter used to attend, the father of 2 young girls died from complications from a car accident, the mother of a fifth grader succumbed to lung cancer, and a 15 year-old I coached at a basketball camp last year was diagnosed with a rare liver disease.

I went for a long walk to try and make sense of it all tonight, and still can't. But, while out enjoying the fresh air, I came across this song on my iPod and felt it was appropriate for today.

This is for Emily, who tonight is at Duke Hospital awaiting a liver transplant. See you soon.

I Know Nothing About Textiles

That did not stop me from attending an event last Friday night here in Raleigh put on by, among others, Amy Quinn. I know Amy from CTK Raleigh. After attending the debut of their new textile design collective, The Common Seam, I was impressed by a number of things.

The first is that I clearly do not get out enough. The artists displaying their work on Friday night clearly know what they are talking about, and I for the most part clearly did not understand what they were talking about.

The second is that I think it's really cool that five up and coming designers in Raleigh, NC ( not a hotbed of design that I know of ) were willing to have a public unveiling of their idea. It takes some amount of chutzpah to lay your work out there for the public to comment on, criticize, and / or not understand.

The third is that this event seems to me to be a great metaphor for the litmus test of the ideas you are working on. Are you willing to put it out there and let it be praised, questioned, misunderstood and maligned by the general public simply because you think it's the right thing to do? If not, it's probably not worth doing.

I am looking forward to seeing what happens with The Common Seam, not because I understand what it means to change the way textiles are designed, but simply because someone I know took a risk and shared their passion with the rest of us. Best of luck to Amy and the crew.