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Tantor Audio, a division of Recorded Books, presents What School Could Be, Insights
and Inspiration from Teachers Across America, by Ted Dintersmith, narrated by Tom
Perkins. Publishers note, this audio book is packaged with bonus material, which
has been included on the first audio and MP3 CD. If you downloaded this audiobook
in a digital format, please visit Tantor.com and type, what school could be into
the search box. Follow the link to the book's page, then click on PDF extra 1. When
prompted, enter the access code, learn, to access the bonus material. If we teach
today's students as we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow.

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John Dewey

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The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government
in the next. Abraham Lincoln Prologue A few years ago, I connected some dots.
Machine intelligence is racing ahead, wiping out millions of routine jobs as it
reshapes the competencies needed to thrive. Our education system is stuck in time,
training students for a world that no longer exists. Absent profound change in our
schools, adults will keep piling up on life's sidelines, jeopardizing the survival
of civil society. not preordained, this is where America is headed, yet few
understand. A looming crisis makes you do the unusual. I've done my share. For
starters, I organized the documentary Most Likely to Succeed, MLTS, an official
selection of two dozen leading film festivals, including Sundance, and screened in
over four thousand communities around the world. I teamed with education thought
leader Tony Wagner to write the book, Most Likely to Succeed, Preparing Our Kids
for the Innovation Era. Both the film and the book address the urgent need to
reimagine education for the innovation era. As these works gained traction, I
started getting invited to speak to groups. Various aspects of my background helped
me connect with audiences. My career spans business and public policy, startups,
venture capital, congressional staff, U.S. delegate to the United Nations. I'm a
parent of two recent high school graduates. I grew up in very modest circumstances
and was the first in my family to go to college. I respect the practical, my dad
was a carpenter, as well as the liberal arts, I majored in physics and English, and
I love meeting teachers who in turn seem to appreciate a business person who
advocates for trusting them. Like so much in life, one thing led to another. Amid
so many stimulating discussions, I kept getting questions I couldn't answer. How
can one person make a difference? How can an existing school transform itself?
Where do we begin? These questions from people who care deeply gnawed at me. So I
took a trip. Not just any old trip. I did something unusual in education, maybe
without precedent. I was on the road for an entire school year. I went to all fifty
states, convened a hundred community forums, visited two hundred schools of all
types, and had a thousand meetings. I spent two hundred forty-five nights in hotel
rooms, and endured sixty-eight TSA pat-downs. I met people of all ethnicities and
communities reflecting America's full range of financial circumstances, the very
poor, the poor, the becoming poor, and the affluent. I met those with real
education power. I drew daily inspiration from teachers and students. This trip was
like drinking from a fire hose. In retrospect, my innovation career helped me
process the deluge. Having worked with young adults as they navigate the innovation
economy, I can recognize learning experiences that help build essential skill sets
and mindsets. Having lived through waves of disruption, I have a good sense for
change models that work and ones that fail. This frame helped me make sense of a
long, sprawling trip. When I left home in the fall of 2015, I wasn't sure what I'd
learn, but learn I did. All across the country I met teachers and children in
ordinary circumstances doing extraordinary things. I saw a mosaic of innovative
classrooms and the conditions that let them blossom. In every community I found
sparks of learning that are so, so promising, but reach only a sliver of our kids.
They're everywhere and nowhere. While a single spark is an anecdote, an aggregation
suggests something more, a vision for the future of school inspired by innovative
teachers across America. It's a vision that's powerful, that's achievable, and that
just might enable our country to claw its way back from the brink and preserve the
American dream. It's a vision of what school could be. In the pages ahead, you'll
cross America to see powerful examples of learning, in classrooms, in after-school
programs, and in places you don't think of as school. From Atlanta to Anchorage,
from Baltimore to Boise, from Concord to Cedar Rapids, and right on down the
alphabet. For the most part, I let the educators tell you their stories. Keep in
mind, though, that I met all of these inspiring people in just one school year,
which speaks volumes about the expansive creativity of our teaching force. At first
blush, these approaches seemed disparate, even incoherent. But as the months rolled
by, common principles emerged. Students thrive in environments where they develop
purpose. Students attack challenges they know to be important that make their world
better. Essentials. Students acquire the skill sets and mindsets needed in an
increasingly innovative world. Agency. Students own their learning, becoming self-
directed, intrinsically motivated adults. Knowledge. What students learn is deep
and retained, enabling them to create, to make, to teach others. We'll call these
the peak principles. Purpose, essentials, agency, knowledge. They abound in
preschools, kindergartens, and Montessori schools, places where children love
school, learn deeply and joyously, and master essential skills. We find peak
cultures in our innovative businesses and non-profits, where employees have the
agency to discover and invent. But we don't find peak in most schools, from
elementary grades through the cavernous lecture halls of college. In the typical
American classroom, students are told what to study and when to study it. They
cover content rather than develop anything essential. They're pushed to jump
through hoops and outperform peers, hollowing out any sense of purpose. Even top
academic achievers retain little from their coursework. Anti-peak. Conditions
matter. We'll see the upside when schools are trusted to adopt PEEC. We'll
understand how America talked herself into policies that shoved PEEC out of our
classrooms, jeopardizing millions in an attempt to leave no child behind. We'll
face findings you may find implausible, even preposterous, including The purpose of
U.S. education is to rank human potential, not develop it. College ready impedes
learning and innovation in our K-12 schools. All students would benefit from
considerably more hands-on learning. We're trying to close the wrong achievement
gap. We can make education better and more equitable by challenging students with
real-world problems. K-12 schools done right would produce graduates better
prepared for life than most current college grads. Educators can transform schools
at scale with change models that establish conditions rather than mandate daily
practice. I understand if you're skeptical since this flies in the face of
conventional education wisdom. Keep an open mind, though, as we visit the front
lines of the battle for the heart and soul of our schools. Be inspired by children
mastering what enables them to flourish. Observe learning conditions that prepare
students to capitalize on, rather than be victimized by, machine intelligence. Be
blown away by innovative teachers bucking a system to show us the way forward. We
are going to learn from them. My trip coincided with the 2016 presidential
campaign, a bipartisan meltdown of anger and vile. Thankfully there's nothing
partisan about education. In the pages ahead we'll meet dyed-in-the- wool
conservatives and bleeding-heart liberals who agree vehemently on education
priorities. But today's America is long on vehemence and short on agreement. The
presidential campaign revealed a population unable to solve problems
collaboratively, a society breaking down as it struggles to analyze critically, to
debate thoughtfully, you truth, a civil society that's beginning to fracture.
America's future is in jeopardy. Our education model is wholly out of touch with
today's world. Our country unwittingly is feeling the rumblings of two very
different revolutions, the one we need and the one we fear. If we have the courage
to revolutionize education, our children will find their strengths, create
fulfilling paths forward, and attack the many problems we're dumping on their laps.
Or we can continue to make excuses for not reimagining school. Keep feeding
children into an education machine that churns out young adults lacking meaningful
skills and purpose, primed to throw hand grenades into the ballot box, or worse. Is
this book for you? Like most authors, I think everyone should listen to my book. If
in fact the future of civil society hangs in the balance, perhaps they should. This
book will make open-minded adults step back and rethink education. If you're
involved with a school, this book will spark ideas for advancing student learning.
If you live abroad, you'll appreciate what foreign education leaders tell me. We
get our best ideas from America. The difference is that we act on them and you
don't. This book offers a tapestry of great ideas. Have at them. If you're leading
the charge to transform your school, this book can help you recruit allies. Share
it with colleagues, friends, even strangers. Form a book club. Listen to it in
conjunction with watching the film Most Likely to Succeed. You'll be surprised at
how many in your community will respond to an aspirational vision. If you're a
parent, this book furthers your understanding of school's impact on your child.
You'll start seeing things differently and you'll be a better advocate. When it
comes to shaping your child's values and life prospects you need the broadest
context and so does your child. I'm deeply grateful to our teachers. This book is
yours. It springs from your creativity. Teachers are often depicted as indifferent,
even lazy, like those caricatures in the misguided documentary, Waiting for
Superman. Well, I've been all over the country and have met thousands of teachers
chomping at the bit to innovate. This book supports you. For teachers open to
innovating,
this book will encourage you to put a toe in the water, maybe even an entire limb.
And if you teach traditionally, this book may persuade you to tolerate, even cheer
on, your innovative colleagues and their chaotic classrooms. I desperately hope
this book reaches those who occupy education's commanding heights—legislatures,
departments of education, testing and curriculum organizations, and college
admissions offices. You need to hear this. Our children should study what's
important to learn, not what's easy for you to test. School should develop each
child's unique potential, not rank it for you with high-stakes standardized tests
of low-level skills. Please, please, please consider the possibility that our
innovative teachers, not data-driven policies, can best lead the way. As we get
ready to cross America, here's what lies ahead. One, conventional schools and their
contexts. We visit the type of school most adults went to. Based on a century-old
factory model, this particular school excels in preparing children for a world that
no longer exists. It's torn between two contexts, an education system anchored in
the past and an innovative world defining the future. Two, real gold amid fools
gold. We'll see stunning world defining the future. Two, real gold amid fools gold.
We'll see stunning examples of classrooms where children love school as they
develop purpose, essential competencies, agency, and deep knowledge. Peak. Three.
Prepared for what?

Transcribed with Cockatoo