Getting to the Future – It’s all about Standards

By standards, I don’t mean watered-down statements that can only be published after four committees, 21 subcommittees and lord knows how many experts agree on their vocabulary and punctuation. That sort of standard sets the bare minimum as a lofty goal. The bare minimum doesn’t cut it. I mean the sort of standards that we hold ourselves to as human beings. The shoot-for-the-moon, I-can-do-anything mindset. Fourth-graders have it. The men and women behind the tech scene’s startups certainly have it. So why don’t our high standards ever seem to penetrate the government’s mindset? Thomas Friedman writes in his New York Times column this week about the need for our next president to leave the bare minimum in the dust and shoot for the moon. It’s worth reading.

Get Creative and Start THINKING

WANTED: A society of respectful, rational, reasoning human beings who understand that freedom hinges on their ability to think for themselves.

Something happened between the Continental Congresses and the rise of talk radio. Did we get lazy as a nation? Was it so easy to get comfortable in our success that we could sink down in our easy chairs and let the screaming control freaks of the world do the thinking for us? Did we think it wouldn’t matter?

Look around. It matters. 

Science fiction writers once feared that technology would enslave us. Instead, it’s going to save us. Young people plugged into the online world don’t take blather at face value — they look up the facts for themselves, they mash up stats to reveal the truth, they create games and videos not just to share but to learn. This is the dawning of the new age of reason. Students today are primed by technology to find their own ways and think for themselves. It’s up to teachers to encourage their creativity and feed that desire to teach themselves.