Unsupervised

CHAPTER 7Reinventing Education

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

—Benjamin Franklin

Equality (or lack thereof) is at the core of virtually every humanist and social science discipline, and many hard science ones as well. Education is a core element. In a “free” country, this can often lead to innovation, wealth, and a better society. The past 150 years have seen education reach a larger percentage of the population, leading to significant advances in almost every field. However, current Western education systems were built for the Industrial Revolution and its requirements. The technological revolution has opened the potential for even greater dissemination of learning. At the same time, it is changing both what needs to be taught and how that can be accomplished.

What humans have needed to learn to survive and thrive has often changed, but generally it has happened gradually. Today, we find ourselves in an environment rapidly evolving on many fronts, not only simultaneously but interdependently as well. School and university systems differ greatly around the world as well as within individual countries. In the United States, for example, there isn't a nationwide/federal curriculum—that power sits with individual states that then cede most control to local communities. Other systems, like the French one, are extremely centralized. Education reflects a particularly complex combination of historical, cultural, political, and practical issues and constraints. ...