The Innovation Ultimatum

16Preparing Our Population for the Post-Automation Economy

Lessons for the Future of Education

The Challenge: A System Designed for a Bygone Era

Automation will profoundly impact the future of work, and to remain relevant in the post-automation economy, millions of people will need to reskill and upskill. A vibrant education sector will be vital to a functioning society and economy. To meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, we will need to reimagine education.

A Stagnant, Fragmented System Designed for a Bygone Era

Classrooms today look much as they did in the nineteenth century: students sitting at desks, facing the teacher and a blackboard. This model—which includes the notions of knowledge compartmentalization, recommended courses, standardized testing, multiple choice, and degree certification—was designed in the 1850s to prepare agricultural workers to transition into factory and office work. The same system persists to this day.

Educational institutions celebrate tradition and are designed to resist change. As former chief-of-staff to the U.S. Department of Education Joanne Weiss observed, “Education has been a place that is wildly resistant to innovation. It was designed [that way] so that crazy fads wouldn't use kids as guinea pigs. Now, when we are desperately in need of innovation, we have built a system that is really, really good at repelling it.”

Some quirks of the current system:

• Teaching talent is trapped inside the walls of institutions. To access ...