turning learning right side up

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Turning LearningRight Side Up:

Putting EducationBack on Track

Russell Acko and Daniel Greenberg

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IEducation should be a lielong enterprise, a process enhanced by an environment that supports to

the greatest extent possible the attempt o people to fnd themselves throughout their lives.

For too long, we have educated people or a world that no longer exists, extinguishing their

creativity, and instilling values antithetical to those o a ree, 21st century democracy. The principal

objective o education as currently provided is to ensure the maintenance and preservation o

the status quoto produce members o society who will not want to challenge any undamental

aspects o the way things are. Traditional education ocuses on teaching, not learning. It incorrectly

assumes that or every ounce o teaching, there is an ounce o learning by those who are taught.

Being taught is, to a very large extent, boring, and much o its content is seen as irrelevant. It is the

teacher, not the student, who learns most in a traditional classroom.

Without motivation, no amount o teaching can produce learning. Motivation comes rom within,

not rom withoutit can not be imposed on students. With motivation, young students and

adults learn, and they do so by means they select. Most o what we learn beore, during, and ater

attending schools we learn without it being taught to us. For example, some schools have done

away with reading instruction altogether; these schools allow children to acquire that skill when they

seek it on their own. They eventually do, some at age 4 and some at age 12. Reading disorders

are extremely rare in such schools. In the old one-room schoolhouse, the students taught each other.

The teacher was a resource that students could call on when they wanted help.

Mass education was explicitly developed to mold naturally unruly children into compliant, obedient

young people. Inspired by the Industrial Revolution, schools were, and still are, designed and

operated as much like actories as possible. Incoming students are treated as raw material to be

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processed into saleable products. Creativity is actively suppressed, and in most schools conormity

which is anathema to creativityis valued instead.

In addition, schools are obviously run more or the beneft o those employed in the system than

to enable students to learn. Teachers, like employees in any system, try to ensure their job security

by requiring students to be taught subjects they, the teachers, know. The explosion in the number

o employees working in the educational system is awesome, and worrisome. It would appear at frst

blush that, given the fnite number o children in schools, the number o people employed in the

system would be limited. Not so. Here is a sample o the ways used to continually expand employ-

ment in the system.

Reducing class sizes.

Adding subjects into curricula.

Monitoring the eectiveness o teaching through requent testing at every level, and research

based on test results.

Increasing the number o students who all below the desired level o achievement using test

scores; hence, increasing remedial education.

Educators and educational planners spend a good deal o time deciding what subjects students

should be taught. This activity is based on the assumption that they know what students are

going to need to know when they fnish their schooling. This assumption is alse or two reasons:

a very large proportion o students will not practice in the feld or which they were educated,

and because the rate o innovation is constantly increasing. What they learn in school is made

obsolete more and more quickly with the passage o time.

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Most classes, curricula, and schools are currently organized around disciplines. As a result, students

come out o school believing there are such things as physical problems, chemical problems,

biological problems, psychological problems, social problems, economic problems, distributionproblems, and so on and on. Problems do not fall into disciplines. Those acing problems do;

thereore, a discipline tells us about the point o view o the person looking at the problem. The

same problem is generally seen dierently by persons who are identifed with dierent

disciplines. The best way o treating a problem cannot be determined without looking at it rom

as many dierent disciplinary perspectives as possible. Problems do not belong to any discipline.

Nevertheless, those that identiy a problem generally try to solve it by manipulating the variables

with which their discipline is amiliar.

The distinction made between science and the humanities (which include the arts) probably does

the most harm. The act is that science and the humanities are two sides o the same coin, dierent

aspects o the same thing. They can be viewed and discussed separately, but they cannot be sepa-

rated. Science engages in the search or similarities between objects and events that are apparently

dierent. The arts and humanities consist o the search or dierences among objects and events

that are apparently similar. Actually, one the best kept secrets o our time is that the distinction

between science and art is wholly nonexistent. Every signifcant development in modern science

Creativity is actively suppressed and in mostschools conormitywhich is anathema tocreativityis valued instead.

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In the world outside the classroom, examinations are seldom used to determine the competence

o a person. We evaluate people by what they can do and how well they can do it, not by such

test scores as are currently used to set standards. The use o such standards in schools is basedon the assumption that children undergo the same developmental process, at the same basic

rate, rom birth until maturity. The truth is that every child has his or her own highly specifc and

original way o growing up. To deny this diversity is to deny the very existence o individuality.

Perhaps the most devastating eect o standardized testing is degradation o many children

who deviate rom the testers idea o the norm. Tests rob most o them o their childhood, strip

them o their sel-esteem, instill in them a lielong distaste or anything academic, and create

in them a well-deserved distrust o all adults. No wonder so many students look on the testing to

which they are subjected with disdain.

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IILearning involves fve types o input to the human mind: data, inormation, knowledge, understand-

ing and wisdom. The fve types o content orm a hierarchy o value. Data are symbols that represent

the properties o objects and events. Inormation consists o data processed to be useul, and it

is contained in descriptions. Knowledge is contained in instructions, answers to how to questions.

Understanding is contained in explanationsanswers to why questions. Wisdom is contained

in evaluations. It is imbedded in knowing the dierence between doing things right and doing the

right thing.

Formal education at all levels ocuses on the least valuable inputs, data, and inormation. Only

recently has attention been given to knowledge. Understanding and wisdom continue to be let out;

ew even learn in school what these consist o. It is wisdom that we should seek more than anything

elsethe ability to make value judgments, to know the consequences o our actions, and to learn

rom our mistakes. Almost all o the prevailing social problems in our society consist o trying to

do the wrong things better. The better we become doing the wrong thing, the wronger we become.

When we correct a mistake while doing the wrong thing, we become wronger. When we correct a

mistake doing the right thing, we become righter. Thereore, it is better to do the right thing wrong

than to the wrong thing right, because we can learn rom the ormer. Exams are used to make

students perceive mistakes as bad things, to be avoided or hidden. However, one never learns by

doing something right; all one can get out o being right is confrmation o what one already knows.

This has value, o course, but not as much as learning rom ones mistakes.

The major opportunities or learning come out o identiying mistakes and correcting them. I learn-

ing were the objective o schools, they would repeat examinationsater they have been given the

frst timeto see to what extent mistakes previously made have been corrected. The avoidance o

taking responsibility or mistakes, induced by schools, carries over to most employing organizations.

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There are two types o mistake an employee can make in such organizations: doing something that

should not have been done, an error o commission; and not doing something that should have

been done, an error o omission. Most students are unaware o the existence oerrors of omission.These are much more serious than errors of commission. However, accounting systems record

only errors o commission. Thereore, these are the only kind o mistake an employee can be held

responsible or. To minimize chances o being held responsible or errors o commission

where errors o omission are not recordedthe best strategy is to do nothing. This is the source

o the conservatism and risk aversion that permeates the current educational system and society.

We should seek wisdom more than anythingelsethe ability to make value judgments,to know the consequences o our actions, and tolearn rom our mistakes.

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IIIComplex problem solving is natural to children. From the moment o birth, nearly all their activity

relates to a vast number o interrelated real-lie problems. With each passing month the number

and complexity o the problems they ace increaselocomotion, communication, sanitation, dress-

ing, etc. They are masters at using trial and error to solve problems.

Nature has provided every child with the key tool or becoming ully adept at fnding his or her

way in a world o increasingly rapid change. The magical tool provided by nature is play. Play in-

volves an exploration o the unknown. Children do this with gusto. Play and learning are inseparable.

In addition, play is an activity that brings joy and satisaction just rom engaging in it. The very

raison detre o educational institutions at all levels should be to provide an environment in which

some orm o play predominates.

Educational systems would be greatly improved i they granted reedom to all students o every age

to ollow their own unique path toward understanding, and to seek, on their own initiative, the

intellectual tools (even play) they fnd most congenial. There is little reason to doubt that students

so occupied will master dierent patterns o thought and pursue a wide range o problems.

Such an environment would oster every childs normal creativity, and the consequent development

o an adult population that is inquisitive, original and innovative.

The impact o education on a child depends, in part, on what the child brings to the process. Among

the most important contributions o the student are curiosity, character, passion, determination,

confdence, and the abilities to contemplate and communicate. However, these traits can be subdued

and even submerged by what is done to them in the educational process. Students are oten pre-

vented rom pursuing their interests or even rom asking questions they may have. They learn early

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that the only permissible questions are ones or which their teachers have answers. They cannot ask,

or i they do, discuss possible answers to such questions as: Why is God an old man? Why is

monogamy desirable? Why cant children divorce their parents?

It is during their preschool years that children engage in the most intense and comprehensive

learning o their entire lives, and nearly all o it is sel-initiated and sel-motivated. They receive little

help rom the adults who act as teachers. Their learning ability is maximized by using the childs

insatiable thirst to grow up and become a unctioning adult. There are many ways that society curbs

childrens sel-directed activity and replaces it with adult-controlled behavior. We, the authors, believe

that every person will develop in his or her own individual manner as completely as possible. From

our point o view, not only is it natures scheme that each child strives to mature in a unique manner,

but it is also our obligation to do everything we can to encourage this and not try to replace the

childs striving with ours. To allow children to engage in sel-initiated activities to their hearts desire

is to allow them to realize their ullest potential as human beings. Thereore, it is hard to understand

why educators and child development specialists advocate systems or coercing children, against

their clear inclination and will, to curtail these activities in avor o an externally imposed adult

agenda. They ail to understand the dierence between managingchildren and leadingthem.

Nature has provided every child with the key toolor becoming ully adept at fnding his orher way in a world o increasingly rapid change.

The magical tool provided by nature isplay.

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To manage others is to direct them in the pursuit o objectives using means which the manager

selects. To lead others is to guide them in the pursuit o objectives by the use o means the ollowers

as well as the leader select. The ollowers o a leader always do so voluntarily; not so or the ollow-ers o a manager, particularly not or managers who command. Leadership, unlike management,

requires talent and thereore is an art. One can be taught to draw or be a manager, but one cannot

be taught to be an artist or a leader. Leadership can be enhanced by education, but not created by it.

To lead children is to enable them to pursue objectives by means they participate in choosing.

Obviously, ew schools do this. The most important single thing or children to learn is to be inde-

pendentto learn about themselves and their environments on their own. Setbacks may get them

rustrated, but thats something to be encouraged. It is good or them to be the prime movers,

and to be able to express reely their reactions to their various experiences.

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IVIn general, schools do not take into account the act that there are three root ideas underlying the

ethical, political, and social structure o the United States.

Every person is endowed with certain inalienable rights, rights that belong to people as their

own, and not given to them by an external authority.

All decisions governing a community are decided by the community in a democratic way.

That is, all those aected by a decision should be able to participate either directly or indirectly

(through elected representatives) in making it.

All individuals share equal opportunities. This provides everyone with an equal starting line,and where they go rom there depends on themtheir abilities and desires, among other things.

Students in our schools, rom pre-nursery to postgraduate levels, have virtually no individual rights.

They have no right o ree speech, no right o dissent, no right o peaceul assembly, no right to

conront their accusers, no right o privacy, and so on. Does anyone really think the way to prepare

people or the responsible exercise and jealous guardianship o their rights in the United States is

to raise them in an environment devoid o these rights? Our educational system is the only major

institution in our country that ofcially recognizes autocracy (in contrast to democracy) as its prin-

ciple type o government. Each level o an autocracy has almost unlimited control over the levelbelow it, the students being at the bottom. There is nothing they decide to do that cant be undone

by a higher authority. The absence o equal opportunity in our schools or all segments o our

population is well known. Equal opportunity means that every student expressing a wish to pursue

a particular course is given a chance to try it. The arguments against granting ull civil rights

to children and empowering them to govern their own lives have no basis in experience. There is

ample evidence that children are quite capable o being ull citizens in a ree society. This has been

demonstrated in a number o pioneering schools.

1.

2.

3.

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VFrom our discussion it can be seen that the ideal school environment or young people to become

educated in should have the ollowing characteristics:

Learning takes place through sel-motivation and sel-regulations.

Equal status is given to all interests.

The output o learners is judged through sel-evaluation, a concept that includes the reedom

to seek outside eedback.

Learning groups orm based on common interests.

No artifcial distinction is drawn between learners and teachers.

All members o the learning community participate ully in regulating its activities.

Such a school is permeated with an atmosphere o comort, sel-confdence, and bustle. Given the

reedom to ail without censure, students will oten challenge themselves to work hardest on their

weaknesses. Although there is no set curriculum, such a school develops in students many valuable

tools that prove their useulness when they reach adulthood. In addition, students at such a school

will be well prepared to unction as citizens in a democratic society. Undergraduate programs in

colleges and universities have become extensions o traditional high schools. All the ailings we have

attributed to K-12 schools apply equally to these institutions. Colleges appear to be serving the

primary social unction o keeping young people out o the workplace or an additional our years

and enabling them to continue to exist without the need to participate as ull members o the

larger adult society.

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Undergraduate studies should ocus on areas o intrinsic value (not instrumental value) to students

studies that are pleasurable, not studies o extrinsic value (useulness) that require practice.

These programs should encourage creativity and enable students to continue learning howto learnand to be motivated to do so. There should be no entrance requirements to undergraduate educa-

tion. There should be exit requirements, but only when students want certifcation o an expertise

in a selected area o study. By contrast, the unction o graduate education should be the develop-

ment o practitioners o proessions. Practices are activities that can only be learned by engaging in

them, such as law, medicine, and architecture. Here also there should be no prerequisites or entry,

but there should be exit requirementsa demonstration o an ability to practice eectively and

responsibly in a chosen feld. Students should design their own educational programs without being

constrained by requirements. Their designs should be reviewed by experienced practitioners.

Students may or may not use the eedback rom aculty members, but they should be required to

deend their choices when their designs are presented or review. Programs should be based on

practice supplemented with opportunities to consolidate (in sel-organized discussion groups) the

learning obtained rom it. Practice should be carried out under real, not simulated, conditions

under the guidance o an experienced practitioner. Graduate programs should be governed by a

committee consisting o all those directly involved in them. All aculty members should have the

same rank and title. This is intended to make each program a classless society. It will reduce

Given the reedom to ail without censure,students will oten challenge themselves to workhardest on their weaknesses.

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the political maneuvering that currently occupies so much unproductive time o aculty members.

Adults who have already pursued a career in one feld and want to change to another will turn to

these graduate schools or retraining. Although lielong careers will doubtlessly continue to exist,

we can expect more and more people to undergo several career changes during their lietimes.

As they do so, graduate schools will have an increasingly diverse age mix among students. Because

o the rapid development o new knowledge and the rapid obsolescence o the old, adults past

school age increasingly want urther education or one or both o two reasons: they either want to

increase their work-related competence, or engage in learning or its own sake, as an end in itsel.

Such continuing education should be conceptualized in a dierent way than or students not yet

practicing in the real world. The postgraduate students in these programs should be active con-

tributors to them. They should have abundant opportunities to compare notes on what they know,and what they believe they need to learn. Universities, technical schools and employers should

provide competence maintenance programs. These programs would continuously survey develop-

ments in designated areas and report them regularly to subscribers, along with a list o sources

or the acquisition o more detail.

Programs should be based on practice

supplemented with opportunities toconsolidate (in sel-organized discussiongroups) the learning obtained rom it.

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New developments in technology make it possible to orm common-interest groups and keep their

members in continuous communication with each other. Graduate schools should be able to guide

individuals into relevant learning networks. Because o a continually increasing lie expectancy, thereis no longer any upper limit to the age at which a person can participate ully in the intellectual and

productive lie o the community. For this reason, retired persons should be permitted to attend

classes (i they are not flled) at no cost in any publicly-supported university or college. The presence

o these older people in undergraduate and graduate classes would enhance the learning possibilities

o the usual kind o students. There is no longer any need to retire at a specifed age. It is likely that

the concept o a retirement age will disappear in the human conditionor perhaps, more properly

stated, society will welcome the return to an age-old practice o treasuring old age.

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VIThe number o groups engaged in totally redesigning education, and schools in particular, is growing

and there is a great deal to learn rom them. The best o these eorts are those in which the

client populationthe studentsplay a critical role. In act, one is hard pressed to deend a process

o redesign in which the client population or which the design is being prepared is ignored.

The environment in which education takes place has undergone proound changes, largely due to

technological advances. Access to inormation and knowledge, speed o communication, and

speed o travel have shrunk the world. These changes have had a great eect on how businesses

and not-or-proft organizations work. They have had much less eect on how educational institu-

tions work and what they teach.

The inormation age oers historically new opportunities or everyone. It is now possible or

education to return to its initial meaning o fnding a meaningul lie or each individual within the

context o the greater culture. In addition, now, or the frst time in history, the greater culture

is global and oers more opportunity or variety, creativity, and diversity than ever beore.

Which brings us back to where we started: Education should be a lielong enterprise, a process

enhanced by an environment that supports, to the greatest extent possible, the attempt o people to

fnd themselves throughout their lives.

The best o these eorts are those in which the clientpopulationthe studentsplay a critical role.

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About the AuthorS

Russell L. Acko is Anheuser Busch Proessor Emeritus o management science at The Wharton School. He has

authored over 20 books and 250 articles, and has conducted research or more than 300 corporations andgovernment agencies. His most recent books include Re-Creating the Corporation, Ackoffs Best, Redesigning

Society, Beating the System, and Idealized Design: Creating an Organizations Future . Daniel Greenberg is a

ounding member o the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Massachusetts. His books include Free at Last,

Kingdom of Childhood, A Clearer View, The Pursuit of Happiness, Legacy of Trust, Worlds in Creation, A New

Look at Schools, and Education in America.

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