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Only 3 percent of Americans can locate Greece on a map. (That’s not true, but if it were, you
wouldn’t be surprised, because we’re idiots about stuff like that.)
The question is: Will spending more time drilling kids on the map of the world solve this
problem? Is our apathy about world affairs a function of a lack of exposure to the map in
school?
Of course not.
No, the problem isn’t that we haven’t spent enough hours memorizing the map. The problem
is that we don’t want to.
Teachers aren’t given the time or the resources or, most important, the expectation that they
should sell students on why.
A kid who is into dinosaurs has no trouble discussing the allosaurus/brontosaurus controversy.
A student interested in fixing up his dad’s old car will have no trouble understanding the
mechanics of the carburetor. And the young Hilary Clintons among us, those who are
fascinated by the world, understand quite clearly where Greece is.
If you’re running an institution based on compliance and obedience, you don’t reach for
motivation as a tool. It feels soft, even liberal, to imagine that you have to sell people on making
the effort to learn what’s on the agenda.
I’m not sure it matters how it feels to the teacher. What matters is that motivation is the only
way to generate real learning, actual creativity, and the bias for action that Open book, open
note
Futurist Michio Kaku points out that soon, it will be easy for every student and worker to have
contact lenses hooked up to the Internet.
One use will be that whatever you’re reading can be instantly searched online, and any
questions that can be answered this way, will be answered this way. Already, there are simple
plug-ins that allow you to search any word or phrase in the document you’re currently reading
online.
Forget about futurists and contact lenses. This is something we can do right now, on any text
on any screen on just about any computer.
What’s the point of testing someone’s ability to cram for a test if we’re never going to have to
cram for anything ever again? If I can find the answer in three seconds online, the skill of
memorizing a fact for twelve hours (and then forgetting it) is not only useless, it’s insane.
In an open-book/open-note environment, the ability to synthesize complex ideas and to invent
new concepts is far more useful than drill and practice. It might be harder (at first) to write tests,
and it might be harder to grade them, but the goal of school isn’t to make the educational-
Stop Stealing Dreams Free Printable Edition 52