Book Review: Stop Stealing Dreams

“The definition of “best” is under siege.”  Seth Godin is known for voicing questions that need to be answered and he’s done it again with his latest manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams.  The focus of this book is to address the current state of education.  As a principal, I’m grateful that the school I serve is already asking these questions on a regular basis in an effort to be on the forefront of 21st Century Education.  Godin addresses the state of the economy in relation to the latest trends in education.  As he has with most of his recent work, Godin has made this book available for free to anyone that is interested in reading it.  Here is a link to download it to your Kindle.

Below I have pasted some things that I highlighted while reading.  I intend to review this list often in an effort to make sure that my school is moving the ball down the field everyday.

  • Scarcity of access is destroyed by the connection economy, at the very same time the skills and attitudes we need from our graduates are changing.
  • It’s about abandoning a top-down industrial approach to processing students and embracing a very human, very personal and very powerful series of tools to produce a new generation of leaders.
  • What I saw that day were students leaning forward in their seats, choosing to pay attention.  I saw teachers engaged because they chose to as well, because they were thrilled at the privilege of teaching kids who wanted to be taught.
  • HVA works because they have figured out how to create a workplace culture that attracts the most talented teachers, fosters a culture of ownership, freedom and accountability, and then relentlessly transfers this passion to their students.
  • Large-scale education was not developed to motivate kids or to create scholars.
  • The post-industrial revolution is here.  Do you care enough to teach your kids to take advantage of it?
  • The question I’d ask every administrator and school board is, “Does the curriculum you teach now make our society stronger?”
  • One more question to ask at the school board meeting: “What are you doing to fuel my kid’s dreams?”
  • No tweaks.  A revolution.
  • Figuring out how to leverage the power of the group–whether it is students in the same room or a quick connection to a graphic designer across the sea in Wales–is at the heart of how we are productive today.
  • We don’t ask students to decide to participate.
  • The essence of the connection revolution is that it rewards those who connect, stand out, and take what feels like a chance.
  • Greatness is frightening.  With it comes responsibility.
  • A linchpin is the worker we can’t live without, the one we’d miss if she was gone.  The linchpin brings enough gravity, energy, and forward motion to work that she makes things happen.
  • When you dream about building the best robot in the competition, you’ll find a way to get a lot done, and you’ll do it in a team.  When you dream of making an impact, obstacles are a lot easier to overcome.
  • If all the teacher is going to do is read her pre-written notes from a PowerPoint slide to a lecture hall of thirty or three hundred, perhaps she should stay at home.  Not only is this a horrible disrespect to the student, it’s a complete waste of the heart and soul of the talented teacher.  Teaching is no longer about delivering facts that are unavailable in any other format.
  • We can amplify each kid’s natural inclination to dream, we can inculcate passion in a new generation, and we can give kids the tools to learn more, and faster, in a way that’s never been seen before.
  • Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • The industrial model of school is organized around exposing students to ever increasing amounts of stuff and then testing them on it.  Collecting dots.  Almost none of it is spent in teaching them the skills necessary to connect dots.  The magic of connecting dots is that once you learn the techniques, the dots can change but you’ll still be good at connecting them.
  • Leadership isn’t something that people hand to you.  You don’t do followership for years and then someone anoints you and says, “here.”  In fact, it’s a gradual process, one where you take responsibility years before you are given authority.
  • School serves a real function when it activates a passion for lifelong learning, not when it establishes permanent boundaries for an elite class.
  • If you want to teach kids to love being smart, you must teach them to love to read.
  • What would our world be like if we read a book a week, every week?
  • Did they reach their level of accomplishment and contribution because of what they are taught in school, or despite it?
  • Give a kid a chance to dream and the open access to resources will help her find exactly what she needs to know to go far beyond competence.
  • The definition of “best” is under siege.
  • Accreditation isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
  • If failure is not an option, then neither is success.
  • We’ve inadvertently raised generations that know volumes of TV trivia and can play video games and do social networking at a world-class level.  The challenge for educators is to capture that passion and direct it to other endeavors, many of which will certainly be more useful and productive.
  • The pedagogy of law school has nothing to do with being a lawyer, but everything to do with being surrounded by competitive individuals who use words as weapons and data as ammunition.
  • We’ve been spending a fortune in time and money trying to stop teachers from doing the one and only thing they ought to be doing; coaching.  When a teacher sells the journey and offers support, the student will figure it out.  That’s how we’re wired.
  • Precisely at the moment when we ought to be organizing school around serious invention (or re-invention and discovery), we wholeheartedly embrace memorization and obedience instead.  Because it’s easier to measure, easier to control, and easier to sell to parents.
  • Is there a better way to learn than by doing?
  • There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been.  The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”  Isaac Asimov
  • Colleges have an opportunity to dramatically shift what it means to be educated, but they won’t be able to do this while acting as a finishing school for those who have a high school diploma.  College can’t merely be high school, but louder.
  • When we let our kids dream, encourage them to contribute, and push them to do work that matters, we open doors for ten that will lead to places that are difficult for us to imagine.  When we turn school into more than just a finishing school for a factory job, we enable a new generation to achieve things that we were ill-prepared for.
  • When we teach a child to make good decisions, we benefit from a lifetime of good decisions.
  • When we teach a child to love to learn, the amount of learning will become limitless.
  • When we teach a child to deal with a changing world, she will never become obsolete.
  • When we are brave enough to teach a child to question authority, even ours, we insulate ourselves from those who would use their authority to work against each of us.
  • When we give students the desire to make things, even choices, we create a world filled with makers.

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