Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track [Hardcover]

Russell L. Ackoff (Author), Daniel Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0132346494 | ISBN-13: 978-0132346498 | Publication Date: June 13, 2008 | Edition: 1

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.

 

In Turning 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 why superficial 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 operated and funded?
A plan that cuts through political gridlock and can actually work

 

Beyond schools: building a society of passionate lifelong learners
Learning from childhood to college to workplace through retirement

 

Reinventing Learning for 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.

 

In Turning Learning Right Side Up, two of this generation’s most provocative thinkers--and practical doers--have done just that. They draw on the latest scientific research, the most enduring human wisdom, and their unique lifelong personal experiences transforming institutions that resist change. And, along the way, they offer a powerful blueprint for a thriving society of passionate lifelong learners.

 

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Russell L. Ackoff is Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of management science at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has authored over 20 books and 250 articles, and has conducted research for more than 300 corporations and government agencies. His most recent books include Idealized Design: Creating an Organization’s Future (Wharton School Publishing).

 

Daniel Greenberg is a founding member of 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, Words in Creation, A New Look at Schools, and Education in America.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface: Why, and How, This Book Was Written

When we first met at a conference devoted to learning in the twenty-first century, we were delighted to find ourselves deeply in sympathy with each other’s approach to education. We had each spent long years with people of all ages and in a variety of different environments—schools, universities, businesses (large and small), nonprofit organizations—espousing views that were for the most part considered radical and unrealistic. We had each endeavored to turn our dreams into reality, and we had each enjoyed enough support and success to encourage us to carry on.

But we had never crossed paths, either directly or indirectly. We soon discovered our common interests, our shared goals, and the widely divergent paths that our lives had taken. We soon became friends.

One day, we began to discuss a certain subject of mutual interest. Because we lived too far apart to meet regularly face to face, we resorted to writing each other. Because of the ease of e-mail, our exchange became, from the outset, a conversation, a rapid exchange of ideas, albeit in written rather than oral form.

The more we chatted through e-mail, the more we delved into the aspects of education that had engrossed us throughout our lives.

Eventually, this book emerged—a book we believe could be of interest to others who have struggled with the same problems.

We wanted, in the body of this book, to keep our unique voices and approaches distinct and obvious to the reader. What you will see is the actual conversation we had, rather than an amalgamation and homogenization of two separate worldviews. In each chapter, our separate views have been set off by icons to enable readers to distinguish our “voices.” However, in the final section of the book, which is about our vision of ideal education, we found that we could speak with one voice, undifferentiated.

We have derived immense pleasure out of our collaboration in this venture. We hope you, the reader, will enjoy eavesdropping on our conversation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall; 1 edition (June 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0132346494
• ISBN-13: 978-0132346498
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #867,265 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking learning seriously, December 12, 2008

By 

Scott D. Gray (Marlborough, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track (Hardcover)

In modern America, everyone and his brother believes that the educational system is broken. But most people suggest responding with more of the same, rather than rethinking what learning is actually about.
When the economy does well, people claim that it must be because of the education system and propose spending more money. When it does poorly, people say that it must be because we don't spend enough on education and propose spending more.

Ackoff and Greenberg go back to first principals, and to daily experiences, to consider how people learn, and how education might be restructured.
What they propose really does turn the modern vision of school on its head. Why do schools in the US -- the land of the free and the home of the brave -- condition children to be passive and to wait on authority?

There is only one suggestion or conclusion that I question. There is an argument posited by one of the authors (Ackoff, I think) for an elaborate voucher system. However, the history of governments' tendency to want to manage how government money is spent would likely crush the innovation that is needed -- pushing and encouraging private schools to recoil further from innovation and the cutting edge, and thereby eliminating the laboratories for reform of education.
That said, the appeal for a voucher system is a very secondary aspect of the book, and does not distract from the arguments, message, and information.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, insightful, and hopefully, far reaching, July 10, 2008

By 

C. Balderson "Cindy B." (Kalaheo, Kauai, HI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track (Hardcover)

This is the best book I've read in years. If our candidates for elected office would articulate their ideals so thoroughly and concisely, we might actually have something to consider.

Dr. Ackoff and Mr. Greenberg helped me to understand why I have yet to obtain a bachelor's degree; and more importantly, why my children rebelled so mightily against the educational system in which they were corralled.

I'm envious of those fortunate enough to have a Sudbury model school in their vicinity and hope for expansion of this model as we move toward the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Education, September 2, 2008

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Julio R. Bartol (Montevideo, Uruguay) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track (Hardcover)

Outstanding and revolutionary insights that must be considered by policy makers around the world. The emphasis is on the learner and not on the teacher, as it should be. Although not explicit, these concepts are in the back of our mind as we search for explanations to our own most rewarding learning experiences.