Nocking the Arrow

"The primary goal of education at all levels should be to expose students to a wide array of pursuits and help them find what they love spending time on." - Most Likely to Succeed; Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era - Tony Wagner & Ted Dintersmith , 2015 "This has been the best school experience EVER!" - overheard from a team of robot builders Knowing how much time and energy our robotics students had put into their BattleBot, I gladly accepted their invitation to attend a competition at Rolling Meadows High School , my alma mater. I brought my son, Trevor, thinking we would both enjoy this experience. We were unprepared for the size, excitement, and mechanical expertise of this spectacle. Aside from the throng of students and their coaches, we met school board members, teachers and their families, district administrators, young kids, and college recruiters. Yes, representatives from engineering schools were there to meet young innovators i...

“Our “leaders”—on both the left and the right side of the aisle—continue to claim that our schools are failing and in need of reform while, in reality, our education system is obsolete and needs reimagining.”   ―  Tony Wagner ,  Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era The expression on the 4th grader's face says it all. It's a look I've seen on my own sons' faces, a looks that says, " I have no purpose here. I'm tired of playing the game of school. " This is the essence shared in the opening scene of " Most Likely To Succeed ", a persuasive film pushing the concept that modern schools should provide opportunities for students to experience deeper, personally relevant, learning. I was eager to catch a screening of this critically acclaimed film, and it did not disappoint in the slightest. A refreshing, new vision for education is presented by the students and teachers at High Tech High in San Diego, California. D...