Alvin Toffler reboots K-12

Here's an energetic strategy for American K-12, from one of the world's most famous futurists:

[Interviewer] What's the most pressing need in public education right now?

[Alvin Toffler]: Shut down the public education system.

First answer!  We should all be so bold when interviewed.
The subsequent discussion explains:

[Interviewer] That's pretty radical.

[Alvin Toffler] I'm roughly quoting [Microsoft chairman] Bill Gates, who said, "We don't need to reform the system; we need to replace the system."

[I] Why not just readjust what we have in place now? Do we really need to start from the ground up?

[AT]We should be thinking from the ground up. That's different from changing everything. However, we first have to understand how we got the education system that we now have. Teachers are wonderful, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who are creative and terrific, but they are operating in a system that is completely out of time. It is a system designed to produce industrial workers...

The public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there. And therefore, with all the best intentions in the world, we're stealing the kids' future...

A couple of notes, once readers get over the shock value.  First, Toffler isn't arguing from a technological-determinism stance.  He's speaking of social changes which include technology. This is an important distinction to make in American education, since we still grapple with the techno-determinist charge.

Second, Toffler takes pains to laud workers in the system.  He's not teacher-bashing.

Third, he pushes for customization.  But it seems to be publisher-driven, supply-side.  There isn't much of a sense of network learning in the interview.

I don't like his sports approach myself, but do admit that that would work for a sizable chunk of kids.  Nor am I convinced that charter schools are hotbeds of innovation, but would be willing to hear from those who've been following that movement more closely than I.
 

Comments

[Andy Havens]

I agree... but even more so, if that's possible. The current educational system wasn't created to train industrial workers; it was created to educate agricultural workers during the off-seasons.