[Live blogged — so please forgive typos and awkward wording]
Pink is describing how he was an extremely, unextraordinary student. His position in law school made the upper 90% possible. He went to law school because it was believed that you would be fine. It made sense in the 20th century. Those skills still matter, but they do not matter as much now.
You’ve got your left hemisphere and your right hemisphere. This is garbage. But it serves as a very useful metaphor. Our brains are unfathmably complex and extreme elegant. Left brain/right brain. He just explained it. You know it.
Use to be that the left brain skills were what were valued and needed for the work place in the last century. They are still necessary. He emphasized — they are still absolutely necessary. But now we also need the other side, the more artistic, intuitive, …
He says, “The purpose of education is not to deliver employees to employers.”
The factors
- Abundance
- Asia
- Automation
Abundance
The U.S. is doing very well. We are so very well off materially. We have 12% in poverty, and it is a disgrace — a historically damning disgrace. More cars in America than drivers. Think of storage units — we have so much “stuff.”
So with abundance, there is competition. I want you to buy my stuff. But I don’t want to lower prices. It’s a death spiral. Instead, I want to concentrate on asthetics — layoff the engineers and hire designers.
The U.S. has become increasingly prosperous, but our satisfaction index has unchanged. He calls this the Abundance Gap. We’ve democratized the search for meaning.
Asia
Off shoring has been massively over hyped. Statistically, it has not been very large, not impact. Over hyped in the short time — but under hyped in the long term. There are a billion people in India. 15% of that is 150,000,000. That’s larger than the population of Japan, the second largest economy. 150,000,000 than workers in the U.S., the worlds largest economy.
2010, India will be the world largest English speaking nation — and they can speak to America for free (he just pointed out someone in the audience with a MacBook). Any work that is routine is disappearing from the U.S. and going to… That’s left brain stuff.
“Yet, there is a mania that our eucation system want to prepare children for routine work, when there won’t be any routine jobs in Ameria in our future.” (nearly a quote)
Automation
No longer computer skills that we need. It’s skills that can’t be outsourced. Robert Sternberg has developed an alternative SAT — the Rainbow Project. You get a blank New Yorker cartoon, you have to write your own caption. It is a better predictor of college success than the traditional SAT.
Two-thirds of Georgia Techs attendees play a musical instrument. Employers are saying, don’t send us bubble sheet wienies. (his words).
Six abilities that matter the most:
- Design
- Story
- Symphony — the ability to see the big picture, recognize patterns, see what’s not there.
- Empathy
- Play
- Meaning
David,
Thank you so much for blogging this event. For those of us who cannot attend live you have made it possible for us to be there.
I have been reading quite a bit lately about the move to “designer” stuff in the US. The big one that comes to mind right now is the hand held vacuum that can sit on a table as decoration (it is shaped like a lava lamp). It is obvious that money will not stop us from doing whatever we want to do. Gas prices have not stopped us from driving. They have not even stopped us from wanting luxury cars and SUVs!
I really like the term “bubble sheet weenies.” Unfortunately, we have a generation of teachers coming along that have only taken bubble sheet tests. How will they know how to give authentic assessments (and grade them)?
Thanks for the live blog!
Thanks for the entry on a fascinating topic.
What scares me is that there will be some “routine” jobs. Burger-flippers and janitors will be around for quite a while. I’m worried that the the growing service economy will be a tempting lure for schools to produce more “bubble sheet weenies.” One example is the push in the last few years towards “hospitality” academies, where kids get specialized training to run hotels and the like.
I worry that when we advocate for education that fosters creativity and artistry, people are going to push back that we need more service-oriented workers.
Just a thought.
Thank you for the post.
There are a couple of ideas that seem contradictory. That is IF I understand them correctly.
Certainly “the purpose of education is not to deliver employees to employers†but then we prescribe six abilities that “matter most” based on presumed needs in the future. (?)
A report of the ACM Job Migration Task Force is very information regarding offshoring.
http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport
Schools shouldn’t try to “produce” any one particular thing or attribute, but rather provide an environment for each individual to reach their fullest potential. It is going to take everyone working together, with all of their various talents and abilities, to face these challenges.
Like Tim, I too like the term “bubble sheet weenies”. Alas, in New Jersey (where your conference is taking place) we require teachers to pass a bubble test on the Praxis that measures content knowledge. That and a soon to lowered to 2.5 GPA can get you a teacher’s certificate.
Our new teachers are coming to us with better digital skills and information acquisition skills than many veterans, yet many still teach their students with a content “drill and kill” focus.
Pink says that we don’t prepare students for employers. While this may be true for K-12, for teacher prep programs in universities, I would think that their training needs to be altered so they are teaching the students of 2007 and beyond, not repeating the way they were taught in 1999.
What do you think David?
Thanks for the live summary of Daniel Pink’s presentation.When I look at the 6 abilities that matter the most, I really have to stop and question how we teach and how we grade. I’m not sure if this is a call for teachers to teach different subject matter, to teach in a different way, to assess differently,or all of the above.
Thanks for all the comments and questions. To be fair to Dan Pink, I suspect that if I had been able to write down every idea and every thread, the answers to most of these questions would have been clear. However, the questions are important and they should be spoken. So I am glad that you have asked them.