Setting the pace.

Lately, I’ve had a real desire to unload a spate of education-related posts on the world. Everyone seems to be talking about the money, as if degrees are some kind of substitute for education. Public school districts are passing the buck – hustling semi-illiterate, unqualified applicants through the doors of college financial aid offices, where something like 80% of them end up paying for dumbed-down college courses to teach them what they should have learned in high school, before dumping them into the job market, scarcely prepared to land “good jobs,” never mind rewarding careers.

In “Question of Motivation,” I closed with mentions of my “Career Modification for Gearheads” book project and “High Performance Skills” hinting at the connection. There are a number of automotive and knowledge management topics I’d like to talk about in the near future, but these thoughts on education are the pace car leading them ’round the track. Let’s take a look at the starting grid.

“Information is not knowledge.”

Einstein said, “Information is not knowledge.” I feel the modern education system is far more focused on information than knowledge. Knowledge is synthesized through the dynamic application of information. After two weeks, we remember about 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, and 30% of what we see, but we remember 70% of what we say, and 90% of what we say and do. (Hat tip to the always inspirational Scott Gould for those statistics.)

Now then, think back to the last classes you took; in high school, in college, in your MBA program, etc.. More often than not, we sat in classes and listened to others present information to us. Our homework would be to read countless pages from overpriced academic texts written years prior. There were always papers to write, with a good portion of your grade depending upon how well you adhered to some damned set of formatting rules. Then, the night before the test, we’d end up cramming.

If I have to study to pass a test, you failed yours.

Rather than grinding out diplomas and degrees through the continued re-stacking of the same weathered building blocks, it is time for new building blocks. The key to it all is connection. People need to be connected to ideas via engagement in order to synthesize knowledge.

I made this connection myself sitting in rush hour traffic one evening a few weeks back. It was one of those nights when my 20 year old Mitsubishi Galant VR4 wasn’t reminding me of the downsides to procrastination under the hood. I was listening to a story on All Things Considered (NPR) about high school dropouts who returned to school after a couple years and how their perspectives changed. The story closed with mention of what each renewed student planned to do with their education. Blake Wilcox said he wanted to study film at the University of Rhode Island.

Click!

What if there were basic expectations for elementary, middle, and high school graduates; not just to pass standardized tests of information retention, but knowledge synthesis? Pushing generic, one-size-fits-all information creates dissonance. Consonance comes from creating an environment wherein participants can discuss how the information might be relevant to their personal interests.  In the case of this aspiring creative from the NPR piece, how might the fundamental building blocks of education be tailored to his interests?

Reading, writing, math, communications, social business skills, personal and business finance – relate the information to individual interests so they can synthesize knowledge. Math is tedious work, but present it as a tool to help an aspiring director get the best deal when he finances a video camera – it’s important. Reading and writing, done to anyone’s standards but your own, is a pain in the ass, but discuss writing and understanding contracts to protect your movie – it’s critical information.

High Performance Skills

I realize our teachers are overworked, underpaid, and often under-appreciated, and figuring out how to tailor each piece of information to each student’s interests  may be a tall order, but maybe the focus should shift from the meaningless chore of rote memorization and blind obedience in pursuit of grades, diplomas, and degrees, to engaging conversations around high performance skills.

• Search – Getting the right information when we need it.
• Critical Thinking – Finding meaning and significance in the information we process.
• Creative Thinking – Coming up with new ways to ideas through dynamic application of information.
• Analytical – Solving problems.
• Networking – Building relationships.
• Logic – Applying reason, validating assumptions, building confidence.

We remember 70-90% of what we say and do. True education reform is not a question of more money. It’s a question of social learning, of teachers and students engaged in conversations about their interests; collaboratively synthesizing knowledge through more dynamic application of information. In our hyper-connected world, perhaps we ought to focus on core competencies – reading, writing, math – only as they relate to these high performance skills.

[Image: First Stop/Adrian Hoskins, Flickr CC]

In the glovebox:

• Onboarding & US Rail Fail
• Social Workplace V: Storming
• High Performance Skills