Daniel Pink & Tom Friedman on Education in the ‘Flat World’

Pink: Great point. I think we need a lot more “yes, but” teaching.
You’ve also made a very strong and compelling argument that what might be most important is learning how to learn. How can schools equip more kids with this capacity?



Friedman: Ultimately that almost becomes a psychologist’s question:
How do you stimulate curiosity? I will learn how to learn if I’m curious.



Pink: But if there’s a curiosity deficit, that’s peculiar. Kids
seem hardwired to explore and investigate. Something happens to them along the way.



Friedman: We beat it out of them.



Pink: When you say “we,” whom do you mean? Teachers? Principals? Parents?



Friedman: Well, the system. I don’t want to blame anyone. Because
of the walls and the silos we’ve built in, to be curious that means you’ve got to cut across them. Curiosity is all horizontal, but specialties are vertical. And specialties protect themselves. So if I can’t move horizontally to take me where my curiosity is taking me, I have got a real problem.



....



Friedman: We could be doing better.



As you know, my equation is CQ + PQ > IQ. Curiosity Quotient
plus Passion Quotient is more important than Intelligence Quotient.



Pink: Amen. You show me a curious, intrinsically motivated kid —
and I’ll show you someone who’ll leave the kid who merely complies with the rules and studies for the SAT in the dust.