The Early Chapters

I was disappointed in the early chapters of the book. He took the easy root and said what was wrong with education and did not have anything constructive to say. For example to use Picasso say that all children are born artists is the same as finding that Linus Pauling might say all children are born scientists. It does not take the conversation forward. It might be more to the point to say that all children are born with many talents and it is a function of schools to bring out those talents. The question becomes how.

Also it is easy to criticize schooling, it is always done because schools are always reacting to what they were told to do 10 years ago. When society needs a talent developed that schools are not developing at the moment it is schools fault. Unfortunately schools do not know what society needs tomorrow only what society thinks it needs today.

Back in the day we needed aerospace engineers, 10 years later those folks were pumping gas because we had too many. Was that the fault of the education system? I do not think so, I think we try to prepare students for a wide variety of paths and then let them loose on the world.

Also when KR says he has talked to many leaders of industry I wonder which ones and what positions were they looking at. For example - at one point the point is that we need fast acting, quick thinking, multicultural leaders. That does not sound like a software engineer to me, but what do I know. And how many do we need of each type?

Preparing students to follow their dreams is a wonderful aspiration, but as my wife and I know what you dream for is not always what will put bread on the table.