Turning Learning Right Side Up

In the age of the Internet, we educate people much as we did during the Industrial Revolution. We educate them for a world that no longer exists, instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. Worst of all, too many schools extinguish the very creativity and joy they ought to nourish. InTurning Learning Right Side Up, legendary systems scientist Dr. Russell Ackoff and "in-the-trenches" education innovator Daniel Greenberg offer a radically new path forward. In the year's most provocative conversation, they take on the very deepest questions about education: What should be its true purpose? Do classrooms make sense anymore? What should individuals contribute to their own education? Are yesterday's distinctions between subjects--and between the arts and sciences--still meaningful? What would the ideal lifelong education look like--at K-12, in universities, in the workplace, and beyond? Ackoff and Greenberg each have experience making radical change work--successfully. Here, they combine deep idealism with a relentless focus on the real world--and arrive at solutions that are profoundly sensible and powerfully compelling. Why today's educational system fails--and whysuperficial reforms won't help The questions politicians won't ask--and the answers they don't want to hear How do people learn--and why do they choose to learn? Creating schools that reflect what we know about learning In a 21st century democracy, what values must we nurture? ...and why aren't we nurturing them? How can tomorrow's "ideal schools" be operatedand funded? A plan that cuts through political gridlock and canactually work Beyond schools: building a society of passionatelifelong learners Learning from childhood to college to workplacethrough retirement Reinventing Learningfor the Next Century:How We Can,and Why We Must An extraordinary conversation about the very deepest questions... Today, what is education for? Where should it take place? How? When? What is the ideal school? The ideal lifelong learning experience? Who should be in charge of education? And who pays for it all? Over the past 150 years, virtually everything has changed...except education. Schools were designed as factories, to train factory workers. The factories are gone, but the schools haven't changed. It's time for us to return to first principles...or formulate new first principles...and reimagine education from the ground up. InTurning Learning Right Side Up, two of this generation's most provocative thinkers--and practicalAckoff, Russell L. is the author of 'Turning Learning Right Side Up', published 2008 under ISBN 9780132346498 and ISBN 0132346494.