It’s Time To Disrupt Our Archaic Education System

Author: David Perell URL: https://www.perell.com/blog/2016/3/14/education One-line: A companion to A Message to Every Entrepreneur — current methods of education are boring and obsolete for a generation raised on constant access to information, and free online resources are already outpacing the classroom.

Key claims

• Current methods of education are boring and increasingly obsolete. The classroom is supposed to be a center for fierce debate and gripping lectures; in reality Perell feels he “turns his brain off” when he enters it.
• Students have changed radically. Citing Marc Prensky’s 2001 essay Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, today’s students are “no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” — they’re wired for the rapid dissemination of information, raised with constant stimulation and the world’s information at their fingertips. These trends only accelerate as technology pervades everyday life.
• The high cost of education promotes inequality and reduces quality of life. Mediocre results don’t justify the arduous sacrifices of students and their parents.
• The rise in tuition has coincided with increasing access to free education (cf. Online Education). YouTube channels (CrashCourse, Seeker Stories, Shots of Awe) plus Coursera, Udacity, Lynda, Audible, and Khan Academy give unprecedented access to the sharpest minds in the world — more visually stimulating than most classrooms, covering science, philosophy, art, and history.
• A handful of teachers make the classroom irreplaceable — but they are few and far between. “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers” (cf. Teacher Celebrities).
• The delta between old and young shows up as classroom inefficiency. Younger generations are exponentially more inclined to use technology to discover the world, tackle complexity, and challenge assumptions. The education revolution is just beginning.

Notable quotes

“The classroom is supposed to be a center for fierce debates, gripping lectures and riveting discussions. In reality, I enter the classroom and feel like I turn my brain off. Current methods of education are boring and increasingly obsolete.”

“Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.” — Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001)

“The high cost of education promotes inequality and reduces quality of life. Mediocre results do not justify the arduous sacrifices of students and their parents.”

“Each channel provides me with unprecedented access to the sharpest minds in the world in a way that is more visually stimulating than anything most classrooms offer.”

“The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”

“Fasten your seat belts and prepare for the unprecedented demolition of a decrepit classroom status quo.”

How it connects

• David Perell — a second 2016 student-era piece on education, paired with A Message to Every Entrepreneur (same themes a year apart).
• University disruption / Alternative Education — the core argument that the classroom status quo is ripe for demolition.
• Online Education — free, self-directed learning (YouTube, Coursera, Khan Academy) outpacing the lecture hall.
• Marc Prensky — the “digital natives vs. digital immigrants” framing Perell leans on.
• Teacher Celebrities — the rare great teachers who keep the classroom worth attending.