I recently read a great online paper by Seth Godin called “Stop Stealing Dreams” at http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams. You should download his manifesto when you get a chance. It is not only one of the better descriptions of the problem with our educational system; it provides links to all of the other key books and resources on this topic as well.

The reason I particularity like this paper is because it starts with a basic question: “what is school for?” He also touches on the needs of the Industrial Age versus where we are now, and strikes at the heart of learning with his insightful view of “doubt and certainty.” Readers of The Explanation Age will recognize this as the foundational element of all reason, which is the balance we make between questions from curiosity versus questions from conviction.

It now seems abundantly clear to all that our institutions are broken at the “model” level. My hope is that we now turn our attention to fulfilling on the mission ahead. We have enough publications that point out the problem, and now have ample awareness that the problem is at the “model” level. It is time to start focusing on the publications that provide alternative models of learning, for education as well as business innovation. I respectfully submit “The Explanation Age.”

What does educational reform mean to you? In the 1950’s and 60’s it meant the end of racially segregated schools in America. Since then, it has represented curriculum reform, teacher compensation reform, teacher accountability reform, parent choice reform, and about a dozen additional reforms. But regardless the teacher, topic, or technology, there is a methodology that all teachers are taught which needs to be addressed if we are to have sense-making reform. This methodology is known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. In 1956, Benjamin Bloom proposed the six types of learning objectives that can be created for learners, and this limited framework provides the foundational skeleton for all of education and testing. This framework was created by talking to teachers and testers to get their lists of classroom objectives, to then group these objectives into six buckets. But as anyone in business understands, the first step in a successful change project is to know who your stakeholders are. Bloom talked to the stakeholders of teachers and testers to understand what they were trying to do, before organizing their classroom objectives into six buckets. Can you identify the missing stakeholder? Why not also ask the learners for what they were trying to do?