Prepare Our Kids for Life, Not Standardized Tests | Ted Dintersmith | TEDxFargo

Summary

The speaker recounts their journey from passive parent to education reform advocate, sparked by a school's ineffective life skills session. They critique the outdated, test-driven education system, originally designed for a manufacturing era, as ill-suited for today's innovation economy. Despite this, they find hope in innovative schools that foster creativity and critical thinking. The speaker's mission is to spread this vision through a documentary, 'Most Likely to Succeed,' urging a shift from standardized testing to an education focused on inspiration, engagement, and life preparation.

Takeaways

• 📧 The speaker's journey began with an intriguing email from their children's school about teaching important life skills.
• 🤔 The speaker pondered over what schools should be teaching children to prepare them for life, beyond just academic grades.
• 📋 They made a list of skills and traits they believe are essential for life, such as problem-solving, communication, and perseverance.
• 🏫 The school session turned out to be a monthly presentation by gym teachers focusing on deterrence through graphic content, which left the speaker unsatisfied.
• 📉 The speaker analyzed their children's education and found a stark contrast between school activities and real-life skills.
• 🚫 The realization that schools were teaching irrelevant skills led to a deeper concern about the future employability of students.
• 🌐 The speaker's background in innovation highlighted the rapid changes in the job market and the need for a new educational model.
• 🏭 Historical context was provided to understand how the current school system was designed for a manufacturing era, not the innovation era.
• 📉 The 1983 'A Nation at Risk' report indicated a failing education system that was outdated and not preparing students adequately.
• 🎥 The speaker's solution was to create a documentary showcasing innovative schools that prepare students for real life, not just standardized tests.
• 🌟 The film 'Most Likely to Succeed' aims to inspire change by showing what schools can be and should be doing to educate students for the future.

Q & A

What motivated the speaker to attend the school session about teaching life skills to children?

The speaker was intrigued by the vague and concise message from the school about teaching children important life skills. This lack of detail led the speaker to wonder what specific skills would be taught, prompting attendance.

What kind of life skills did the speaker believe schools should focus on?

The speaker thought schools should focus on skills like inventive problem-solving, communication, teamwork, determination, perseverance, resourcefulness, and characteristics such as boldness, appreciating wonder, setting goals, and learning how to learn.

Why was the speaker dissatisfied after attending the session at the school?

The speaker was dissatisfied because the session only focused on 45-minute monthly presentations led by gym teachers, using scare tactics like showing gruesome videos to discourage behaviors like smoking. The approach seemed superficial and ineffective for developing meaningful life skills.

What realization did the speaker come to after reflecting on their children's education?

The speaker realized that the focus had always been on grades and homework, but not on how the content related to real life. After dividing tasks into columns of 'relevant to life' and 'irrelevant,' the speaker found that much of what was taught in school was irrelevant or even harmful to a child's future.

What concerns did the speaker have about the traditional education system's impact on children's future prospects?

The speaker was concerned that the traditional education system, which focused on following instructions and routine tasks, would leave children unprepared for an innovation-driven economy. This could result in mass unemployment or marginalization.

How does the speaker view the characteristics of young children, and why are they important in today's world?

The speaker sees young children as naturally inquisitive, bold, creative, and comfortable with risk and failure. These traits are crucial for success in today's rapidly changing, innovation-driven world, and the speaker believes that preserving these traits is essential for future success.

What historical context does the speaker provide about the design of the current education system?

The speaker explains that the current education system was designed around 1893 to prepare children for a manufacturing-based economy, where efficiency, routine, and error-free execution were prioritized over creativity and innovation. This system was highly effective for its time but is now outdated.

What was the response of policymakers and education reformers in the 1980s to the failing education model?

In response to the failing education model highlighted by the 1983 report 'A Nation at Risk,' policymakers doubled down on the existing system, increasing testing and measurements instead of rethinking the model to fit a world transitioning from manufacturing to innovation.

Why is the speaker not discouraged by the current state of education, despite its shortcomings?

The speaker remains hopeful because there are innovative schools that successfully prepare students for life through authentic engagement and creativity. These schools offer a glimpse of what education could look like if reformed more widely.

What action did the speaker take to spread awareness about innovative education practices?

The speaker funded and supported the creation of a documentary called 'Most Likely to Succeed,' which showcases schools that align education with real-life preparation. The film has been screened at film festivals and education conferences, aiming to inspire change in communities across the U.S.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 The Discontent with Traditional Education

The speaker recounts an email invitation to a school session about teaching life skills, which sparked a personal quest to define what those skills should be. They compiled a list of essential skills and traits, such as inventive problem-solving, communication, teamwork, determination, and perseverance. However, the session turned out to be a monthly presentation by gym teachers focusing on negative consequences of behaviors like smoking. This led to dissatisfaction and a deeper reflection on the relevance of school activities to real-life skills. The speaker observed that schoolwork often focused on irrelevant tasks, while essential life skills were neglected. They also noted that current educational practices could jeopardize students' future by discouraging the very traits needed for a rapidly innovating world.

05:00

🏫 The Historical Roots and Modern Shortcomings of Schooling

The speaker delves into the historical design of schools, explaining that they were created to prepare students for a manufacturing-based economy, emphasizing efficiency and routine over creativity. They argue that this model worked in the past but is now outdated in the innovation-driven world. Despite recognizing the need for change, the educational system has instead intensified its focus on standardized testing, leading to a 'more of the same' approach that is detrimental to students. The speaker contrasts this with innovative schools that are successfully preparing students for the modern world, indicating that we already know how to educate for the future but are failing to implement these practices widely.

10:05

🌟 A Vision for Transformative Education

The speaker shares their mission to spread the message of educational reform through a documentary film that showcases innovative schools. They emphasize the need to shift the focus of education from standardized testing to inspiration, engagement, and trust. The film, 'Most Likely to Succeed,' has been well-received and is being used to inspire change. The speaker is committed to taking this message to all 50 states, urging communities to rally around the vision of education that prepares students for life, not just tests. They call for a collective effort to change the educational paradigm to one that fosters innovation, determination, and the skills needed for the 21st century.

Keywords

💡Life skills

Life skills refer to the practical competencies that individuals need to navigate everyday life effectively. In the video, the speaker expresses concern that schools are not adequately teaching these skills, which include problem-solving, communication, and perseverance. The script mentions that the speaker expected the school session to cover such skills but was disappointed to find a focus on scare tactics rather than skill development.

💡Inventive problem solving

Inventive problem solving is the ability to come up with original and effective solutions to problems. The speaker's list of desired life skills for children includes this concept, indicating its importance for preparing students for future challenges. The video suggests that traditional education methods may not foster this skill, which is crucial in a world where innovation is highly valued.

💡Standardized tests

Standardized tests are assessments that are administered and scored in a consistent manner to measure a student's knowledge or skills. The script criticizes the overemphasis on these tests, suggesting they do not reflect the full range of a student's abilities or prepare them for real-world challenges. The speaker argues for a shift from test-based accountability to more meaningful forms of education.

💡Manufacturing to Innovation

This phrase represents the economic shift from an industrial focus on manufacturing to a knowledge-based focus on innovation. The speaker uses this transition to argue that the educational system, which was designed for a manufacturing economy, must change to prepare students for the innovation economy. The video suggests that current educational practices are outdated in the context of modern economic needs.

💡Irrelevant education

Irrelevant education refers to the parts of the school curriculum that do not have practical applications in adult life. The speaker's personal analysis of his children's education revealed a column filled with such topics, like 'factoring polynomials', which he suggests are not useful for life after school. This keyword underscores the disconnect between school and real-world needs.

💡Inspirational education

Inspirational education is an approach that motivates students by engaging them in meaningful, authentic learning experiences. The speaker contrasts this with the current system, which he sees as demotivating and focused on test scores. He advocates for an educational model that inspires students to learn and prepares them for life, aligning with the video's theme of reimagining education.

💡Accountability

Accountability in education refers to the responsibility of educational institutions to demonstrate that they are achieving their goals, often through standardized testing. The script criticizes this approach, suggesting it leads to a narrow focus on test preparation at the expense of broader educational goals. The speaker calls for a redefinition of educational success beyond mere accountability measures.

💡Innovation

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value or for which customers will pay. The video emphasizes the importance of fostering innovative thinking in students, as it is a key skill in a rapidly changing world. The speaker's career in innovation and venture capitalism informs his perspective that schools should be preparing students for a future that values creativity and new ideas.

💡Engagement

Engagement in an educational context refers to the level of interest and involvement students have in their learning. The speaker argues that schools should focus on engaging students in authentic, meaningful work rather than rote learning or test preparation. Engagement is seen as a key factor in developing a love for learning and preparing students for life.

💡Purpose

Purpose in education refers to the reason or aim behind learning activities, suggesting that students should understand why they are learning something and how it relates to their lives. The script implies that traditional education often lacks this sense of purpose, whereas an ideal educational model would help students connect their learning to their passions and future goals.

💡Most Likely to Succeed

Most Likely to Succeed is the title of the documentary film mentioned in the script, which showcases innovative educational practices. The film's title symbolizes the potential for schools to succeed by preparing students for real-life challenges rather than standardized tests. It represents the speaker's vision for a transformed educational system that aligns with the video's central message.

Highlights

The speaker received an email about a school session to teach important life skills.

The speaker expected the school to cover skills like problem-solving and communication.

The school's approach was to show gruesome videos as a deterrent for bad habits.

The speaker felt dissatisfied with the school's approach to teaching life skills.

The speaker started tracking what school activities were relevant to life preparation.

Many school activities were found to be irrelevant to real-life skills.

The speaker added a third column for activities that could harm students' life prospects.

The speaker's career in innovation revealed the rapid pace of change and the need for new skills.

The current education system was designed for a different era focused on manufacturing.

The 1983 'A Nation at Risk' report criticized the US education system.

Efforts to improve schools focused on standardized testing rather than relevance.

The speaker discovered innovative schools that were preparing students for real life.

The speaker produced a documentary to showcase what schools can achieve.

The documentary 'Most Likely to Succeed' premiered at Sundance and received positive feedback.

The speaker is touring with the film to promote a new vision for education.

The speaker calls for a shift in education from standardized testing to inspiration and engagement.

The speaker urges communities to embrace a new approach to education that prepares kids for life.

Transcripts

[Music]

this started

innocuously when my kids were in middle

school I got an email from the school

saying we're having a session next week

explaining to you what we're doing to

teach your children important life

skills and as a parent that's

irresistible but that was the essence of

the communication teach your kids

important life skills and if it had been

more descriptive I wouldn't be here

today but because it was so concise and

so vague I spent a week saying what will

they cover what in fact should schools

be doing to teach kids important skills

that are useful in life and I started

making my list and my list included

things that were skills like inventive

problem solving or communication or

teamwork or figuring out complex

situations or characteristics and

character traits like determination and

perseverance and

resourcefulness being able to stand up

to failure being bold or appreciating

the Wonder in nature and human

achievement or capabilities we all need

like setting bold goals for yourself

learning how to learn being able to

persevere through difficulties finding

your passion and purpose in life and

figuring out how you can make your world

better so I made that list and I put it

on a piece of paper but I left a lot of

blank space on the paper because I

knew I would hear way more than that and

I wanted to take notes I wanted to learn

from this session and I expected to be

surprised and I was surprised so so the

session consisted of the initiative that

they were

unleashing was 45 minutes a month these

middle school kids would go to a

presentation run by the gym teachers and

they would pick the problem or the

challenge of the month and so if you

didn't want kids to ever smoke we would

show the most Grizzly gruesome videos of

tar infested lungs and advanced stages

of tongue and mouth cancer and somehow

that would be transformation

transformational to our kids and so I

left that session and and somehow felt

vaguely dissatisfied and so when I came

home I started to think about my kids in

their education I'd always cared about

their education but I think like most

parents I had really focused on two

things I focused on how my kids were

doing what grades they were getting and

I focused on how much they were doing

were they buckling down and doing their

homework but I never had steep back and

said what are they doing let alone how

does it relate to life so I made a great

big sheet I divided into two columns and

I said over here I'm going to track

things they're doing in school that help

prepare them for life and over here I'm

going to attract things that are

irrelevant and I'm just going to pay

attention and watch this over a matter

of days or weeks or months and see what

pattern

emerges and a bit to my surprise the

column on the right the irrelevant

column was full and then some in less

than a week and when I say the names of

things that were on it you will

immediately associate them with school

and the reason is because that's the

only place you ever use them things like

factoring polinomial or jirens or kum's

law

the left the column of what's preparing

kids for life I was doing my very best

to give things a benefit of the doubt

but that column remained stubbornly

empty but that wasn't what really

concerned me what concerned me was that

I ended up having to add a third column

and that third column was things that

would jeopardize or impair a kid's

prospects in life and I knew something

about that because I spent my career in

Innovation and and as a career venture

capitalist backing some of the top

for-profit but also social entrepreneurs

people that want to make this world

better I knew two things with the utmost

Clarity one was that Innovation

sprinting forward in a way none of us

can even imagine every structured job in

the economy if it hasn't disappeared

already will disappear and so kids

coming through education simply trained

to follow instructions and jump through

hoops are kids that are going to be

marginalized or chronically unemployed

and that's not 10 kids and 100 Kids

that's millions of kids but the second

thing I knew is that this was a time of

incredible opportunity and if you look

at the characteristics you see in every

5-year-old inquisitive bold

creative totally comfortable with taking

risk and failing if we could just

preserve those characteristics this

would be the best of time for our young

adults but my list of things that were

going on in school that jeopardized kids

prospects were all around that and that

we were actively in schools

discouraging eliminating those types of

characteristics and traits and so that

changed my life my life in many ways

stopped I stopped being a person and

started to being a cause much to the

Chagrin of my My Wife and Kids and um

and I started traveling everywhere and

meeting people and reading books I

watched every education documentary I

could find and in the process I learned

so much and one of the things I learned

one of the things I thought I'd be

discouraged about was the design of our

schools because here I am staring at

this thing that says says kids need to

be good at X we're making them good at

something that's irrelevant this is a

big problem but our schools actually

were thoughtfully designed by very fars

seted people people that anticipated a

world that was changing so in 1893 the

committee attend said the world is going

to move from agriculture to

manufacturing there will be millions of

opportunities for young kids that can do

the same task over and over efficiently

and without

error at the same time Henry Ford does

not need creative bold Innovative

assembly line workers so let's organize

a school to promote efficiency and

routine execution of operations and

let's discourage creativity and that's

the school system we changed to over the

course of the of about a 20-year period

from 1893 to the early 1900s and it

worked and America became the most

important country on Earth and we

created a robust and strong middle class

and we were the Envy of the world we

saved the world in in World War to but

then what happened let's fast forward is

that the same characteristics we would

hope for from the committee of 10

somehow didn't materialized in the 20th

century and by by the time we got to

even the 1980s it was clear our

education model had run out of steam so

there was a report done in

1983 about education called a nation at

risk and that report had this telling

sentence it said if our education system

had been imposed on us by a foreign

country we would declare it an act of

War think about that an act of War but

what did our equivalent of the committee

of 10 the philanthropists and policy

makers and business people who could

really influence education do did they

step back and say we are making a

transition from manufacturing to

Innovation and just as in the last

century we changed our model we need to

change it again that's not the the path

we took that's not the choice we made

and so instead we said let's take the

same oppos obsolete system and make it

better by doing more of it more

intensely and let's test and measure

more carefully and let's not really give

any thought to how relevant it is to

life but let's just put the pressure on

our schools to catch up with South Korea

and Singapore on these standardized test

measures and the results I think you all

know have been catastrophic and you

would think that being immersed in that

for this period of time I would be

incredibly discouraged but I wasn't

because at the same time I was visiting

schools they were doing the most

incredible things things it's not that

we don't know what we should be doing

with our schools it's not that we

haven't figured out how to prepare our

kids for a very different world that we

as adults grew up in we know that it's

just that those are isolated pockets of

great Innovation and practices and so

what I said is my contribution to this

should be how can I spread that message

how can I share that vision of schools

that are schools of possibility and hope

instead of placement and percentile

measurement on standardized tests and so

the vehicle I chose to do it I am not by

any stretch a filmmaker but I'm a

Believer in the power of film and so I

did a six-month search and I found a

documentarian that I think is the best

in the country and I supported him and

his and his team for two years to film

across the country in all sorts of

situations all demographics all

geographies all age groups and all types

of schools public private Charter I said

capture the story show our audience what

schools are capable of show our audience

what students and teachers can do if we

trust them and let them engage and

Inspire in things that are authentic and

that film called most likely to succeed

premiered in January at Sundance and

since then we've been to more than a

dozen major film festivals we've been at

every important education conference

we've had more than a thousand schools

request that film because when you're

there and I've been to 50 of these q&as

now the response of audience when they

see school situations that are aligned

with life

preparation they are so enthusiastic and

so committed and and people over and

over again are saying this is what we

need to do and so what I'm doing going

forward is I actually am taking this

film to all 50 states and so I called my

wife last night she couldn't be here but

here's what I said it was a very short

phone call because I was in between

things I said Elizabeth Fargo is

awesome sure I

said I said we are coming back here and

I said we're coming back here soon but

when I bring this film to a community I

can only do a small amount myself I can

be here I can bring the film but I have

to in the words of Blanch duah from

Street card name desire I have to rely

on the kindness of strangers and so what

I'm asking this community to do and I'm

asking it at all 50 states is to find

the people who share this vision of what

schools are capable of and pull together

an audience that includes teachers

teachers and parents and students but

also includes your communities your

State's own equivalent of the committee

of 10 the people that make the most

important decisions about the future of

your kids and let's communicate to them

this important message our country is

the most Innovative and determined on

the face of the planet in a time that

begs for those skills let's educate to

our strength instead of chasing Shanghai

and South Korea on standardized tests

let's change the center of the

university and education from

accountability and failed test measures

and make the center of Education be

inspiration and engagement and trust and

purpose and let's carry the message

forward to all schools that what we want

you to do is to prepare prepare our kids

for life so thank you

[Music]