Lessons For Tomorrow: Bringing America's Schools Back from the Brink is a comprehensive guide to help parents, educators, and students understand the core flaws in America’s public education system. Author Edward Davis explains why the system is obsolete and then covers the design principles and features of a redesigned K-12 public education system. No other book combines macroeconomic thinking, politics, social issues, cognitive science, systems design, and appropriate uses of technology to provide a complete, easy to understand set of diagnostics as well as a prescription for the cure.
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Defenders of America's educational system now have challenging prescriptions for a total rethinking and redesign of how we teach. -- Dr. Steve Eskow, author of Barron's Guide to the Two Year Colleges
The definitive guide to why American education is obsolete, and to what a new design should look like. -- Michael Foulkes, Director Emeritus, The Learning Center, London
The definitive guide to why American education is obsolete, and to what a new design should look like. -- Michael Foulkes, Director Emeritus, The Learning Center, London
About the Author
Edward Davis has been a charter school teacher, a corporate trainer, an instructional designer, an education writer, a pioneer in the e-learning industry and one of the first to design and promote cognitive-based approaches to adult education. He founded and operated a training company (MetaCommunication), launched the Electronic University Network, the first successful enterprise to offer college credits and degrees online and initiated the first computer mediated college advanced placement program in a U.S. high school district.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid synopsis of the education's deepest issues & interesting ideas for alternatives,
By
This review is from: Lessons for Tomorrow (Paperback)
After reading a lot of John Taylor Gatto and other critical education writers, I was initially hesitant about a book written by someone who's background was technology-based learning. Like homeschooling, a lot of online and computer-based learning is the same school game in a different package. I was pleasantly proved incorrect.
Davis forms a cogent summary of the deep, root issues of modern schooling and why no reform will cure them. Like Gatto, he concludes that a total rehaul of the system is needed. The "learner-centered learning architecture" that Davis elaborates on is a strong blend of focus on individual needs/wants, appropriate use of modern technology (mostly computers), and realistic appraisal of new roles for teachers/mentors/adults. His vision is realizable. Davis' overall strong writing is marred by occasional off-topic chapters, seemingly thrown together at random, and at times his writing feels like a 10th grade term paper with its repititive introductions and conclusions. On the whole, the writing style is strong and commanding. I gave the book 5 stars because his analysis of the schoooling/education problem is excellent, his "prime directives" of learner-centered education are valid, and he makes strong, original suggestions for an alternative system of public education. If you like this book, be sure to check out Gatto, Llewllyn, the Sudbury Valley School books... don't be constrained to the Barnes'n'Noble selection of Kohn, Kozol, and the rest of the progressives!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read for Educators, Parents and Community Leaders,
By
This review is from: Lessons for Tomorrow (Paperback)
As an educator and single mother of two accomplished young adults, I found Mr. Davis' incredible historical expose and proposition for change absolutely affirming.
In my own parenting experience, very early on it was easy for me to clue into and begin nurturing my daughters' inborn curiosities and talents. Understanding infant and early childhood development as well as that of the human brain, perhaps I had a bit of an edge. Nevertheless, as soon as "we" (the girls and I) entered the public schools, it became immediately clear that "the institution", by its design, was hosing the fire for learning -- a fire that is essential to healthy, successful individual and community life. My zeal to continue nurturing my children in a way that allowed them not only to remain eager life-long learners and grow into good citizens, but to also become (within their abilities and interests) all that they aspired to be, put me (and other families with similar concerns) in direct opposition with the system ... this challenge drained large amounts of valuable time, energy and resources that could have been invested in families and community life in other areas of tremendous need! In my professional life over the last 25 years, I have also witnessed the consequence to many communities of the "dumbing down" process. It is a design that, if not replaced by an education architecture such as that so expertly set forth by Mr. Davis, will take us into the abyss. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE ... "Lessons for Tomorrow" should be required reading of every educator, parent and community leader. Please read this book and share it with others. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for bringing this critical discussion to a new level and providing a workable architectural plan that can meaningfully replace what has long been obsolete.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wakeup Call for America!,
By Blue Wing (Colorado) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lessons for Tomorrow (Paperback)
Coming from the angle of layperson and concerned parent of two young Montessori students, this book was spot on. The history of educational philosophy, from ancient Greece through Colonial America, to the modern age, gives the reader a strong understanding of educational goals and methods throughout history.
The idea that student initiative and interest is essential for true learning blends well with what I believe and have experienced in my short exposure to the Montessori method. Mr Davis is thorough in his documentation of our educational shortcomings (shockingly so I might add), and explicit in his model for education in the 21st Century and beyond. Let's just say, the teachers union will probably argue with many of his suggestions. While the reading can be "heavy" at times, it is approachable for the layperson, and hefty enough for the policy wonks and academics to sink their teeth into. Buy 2 books and give one to your local school principal! Change can only begin with a debate at the local level...
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