Steve Job’s Lead on Education
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Now that the Internet is being transformed into a social interaction tool, I don’t think we’re using it right. I can only speak from my own experience, but I see it being used as more of a distraction rather than the incredible possibilities it has as an educational tool.
I wrote about Steve Jobs and referenced his speech to Stanford. I keep looking back to it and I’m finding a lot of irony in the beliefs of those that worship him and Apple. One of the more striking is that Apple relied on the education system for it’s funding for many years. Years ago, Apple was the dominant system in any government funded class even though the private sector leaned heavily towards the PC. When I see that Jobs found great value in dropping out and studying only what interested him and what he found value in, it flies in the face of those who preach that a degree is required and that their classes must be taught.
Considering where in an age where more information is available for free than at any other time in history, I find it odd that more are not following Jobs’ lead to learn for themselves. A quick look at the website The Do It Yourself Scholar is just one of many resources for free classes. While the education system beats the same old drum, technology is moving ahead without them. The system is doing it’s best to hold onto the idea that you need to borrow more than the costs of a house for their brand of education, but it’s not working. Even the funding for education is about to collapse.
Thanks for the information Mr. Jobs! Finding clues to success like this are hide to find. When they’re cloaked in a message to a bunch of graduates that have just the opposite of what you’ve done, it’s difficult to find them.
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Mark,
I started asking this in early 2007: if you could start from scratch, with no preconceived ideas about who, when, what, or how, what would public education look like? By the end of the year I had launched AllNewPublicEducation.com and the work began of filtering through the numerous sources on edreform in order to find those who understood that this was not about change, it was about revolution.
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and so many more examples of “alternative paths to personal success” served as the recognizable examples for discussions with skeptics. But it was too easy for those to be dismissed as unique and inappropriate for the masses. Instead, the millions of home schoolers, unschoolers, and free schoolers were the real examples I needed to point people to who couldn’t see themselves or their children learning enough to compete with the oroducts of the traditional system.
I have been fortunate to find a small group of accomplished revolutionaries who are focused on waking the world’s parents up to the alternatives that are available to them for educating their children. Alternatives that allow children the freedom to choose what and how they want to learn. Alternatives that encourage everyone to find and pursue their passion, rather than become a shallow generalist with no motivation other than keeping with their neighbors.
It’s my 150-year project to reboot public education, Mark. Want to join?
Stephen Dill