<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'comic sans ms',sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">The failure of our model of largely passive learning and rote practice is explained by Daniel Coyle in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055380684X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=055380684X&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20&linkId=ad8754889b36441571eb3febb0f56a43" target="_blank" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">The Talent Code</a> (sent to me by Ron G.), which upends the notion that talent is a genetic gift. It isn't--in his words, it's grown by <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">deep practice</i>, the <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">ignition of motivation</i> and <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">master coaching</i>.</div><div>BS - this is the same old tired old Blank Slate idea that genetics doesn't count for anything.</div><div><br></div><div>This idea should have died with Skinner, or at the very least after reading Pinker's Blank Slate.</div><div><br></div><div>I assume massive amounts of data accompanied The Talent Code? I have to doubt it.</div><div><br></div><div>I have no opinion on the rest of this post. But you don't make geniuses with practice.</div><div><br></div><div>bill w</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 2:24 PM, Dave Sill <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sparge@gmail.com" target="_blank">sparge@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 8:42 AM, spike <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net" target="_blank">spike66@att.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Suggestions please?</blockquote></div><br><a href="http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/06/its-time-to-ditch-4-years-of-costly.html" target="_blank">http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2016/06/its-time-to-ditch-4-years-of-costly.html</a><br><br><div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Short,
intense directed apprenticeships that teach students how to learn on
their own to mastery are the future of higher education.</i></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">So
it turns out sitting in a chair for four years doesn't deliver mastery
in anything but the acquisition of staggering student-loan debt.</b> Practical (i.e. useful) mastery requires not just hours of practice but <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">directed deep learning via doing</i> of the sort you only get in an apprenticeship.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
The failure of our model of largely passive learning and rote practice is explained by Daniel Coyle in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055380684X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=055380684X&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20&linkId=ad8754889b36441571eb3febb0f56a43" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">The Talent Code</a> (sent to me by Ron G.), which upends the notion that talent is a genetic gift. It isn't--in his words, it's grown by <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">deep practice</i>, the <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">ignition of motivation</i> and <i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">master coaching</i>.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Using
these techniques, student reach levels of accomplishment in months that
surpass those of students who spent years in hyper-costly conventional
education programs.</b> The potential to radically improve our higher
education system while reducing the cost of that education by 90% is the
topic of my books <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1497533406/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1497533406&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1491222212/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1491222212&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy: The Revolution in Higher Education</a>.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Let's
start by admitting our system of higher education is unsustainable and
broken: a complete failure by any reasonable, objective standard.</b> Tuition
has soared $1,100% while the output of the system (the
economic/educational value of a college degree) has declined
precipitously.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
A recent major study, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LE9ILS/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004LE9ILS&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses</a>, concluded that <b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">"American higher education is characterized by limited or no learning for a large proportion of students."</b></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Academically-Adrift-The/130743/" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">'Academically Adrift': The News Gets Worse and Worse</a> (The Chronicle of Higher Education)</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">These
two charts are the acme of unsustainability: college tuition has
skyrocketed, along with federally funded student loan debt.</b></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<img src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2012/college-tuition11-12.jpg" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" align="middle" border="0"></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<img src="http://www.oftwominds.com/photos2016/student-loans5-16a.png" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" align="middle" border="0"></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">The
typical graduate of a short, intense directed apprenticeship says "I
learned more in a month here than I did in four years of college."</b> This is a statement of fact, and it is the result of the methods deployed in structured on-the-job training.</div>
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<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
It is a fact that passively listening to a lecture does not generate the
sort of mastery that creates economic value or the sort of deep
understanding that is the goal of a classic liberal arts education.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
It's also a fact that rote practice also doesn't lead to mastery, and
often kills the very passion for a subject that in more productive
programs jumpstarts mastery.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Our higher educational system has failed so badly that many students are incapable of writing/communicating effectively.</b> In
a world of rapidly changing technologies across every field and an
emerging economy that places an ever-higher premium on collaboration and
clear communication across multiple time zones and languages, the
ability to write clearly is absolutely essential.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
To "graduate" students with poor writing skills is completely
unforgivable. Yet in the current system, if a student logs the requisite
number of credits, a diploma is duly issued, regardless of how little
he/she actually learned.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Here's a six-month program that could replace four years of hyper-costly, ineffective university.</b></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
1. Teach the students how to learn on their own, for the rest of their
lives. This could take as little as a few hours or days. Once a student
learns how to pursue deep learning and deep practice on their own, they
don't need years of classrooms--they just need the guidance of someone
experienced in the field, i.e. a structured apprenticeship.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
2. One semester in a wide variety of on-the-job experiences. Once
students are given real experience in a variety of fields and
industries, it's likely some spark of ignition will occur and they'll
find the motivation to pursue real mastery instead of a worthless
credential.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
3. Directed apprenticeships plus online lectures/workshops by the best
lecturers viewed before or after the students' real work. The key to
learning deeply and learning fast is to push right up against the
current level of competence, where failure occurs and can be addressed
one piece at a time.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
Interestingly, Coyle notes that the most successful incubators of talent
around the world are generally in makeshift or decrepit buildings, not
fancy new gleaming buildings of the sort that dot American college
campuses. Surrounded by luxury, who feels any hunger to learn anything
voraciously?</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">The
entire "campus experience" should be jettisoned, not just as an overly
expensive infrastructure but as a detriment to fast, deep learning that
is the foundation of mastery.</b></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
It isn't that hard to teach students how to improve their
writing/communications skills very quickly, and give them a taste of the
classic liberal arts education so many people claim is the goal of
$120,000 four-year programs that fail to generate a deep understanding
of anything remotely leading to mastery.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
Give them a single sentence by Melville, Austin, et al. and have them
compose a sentence that is like the original in cadence, structure and
meaning in one minute flat. Go, go, go. Then break down each phrase and
each component and work through each one to improve their first efforts,
step by step. Repeat the process, always under intense time pressure.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
Then take them out into the real world to report a journalistic story by
interviewing people, checking facts, confirming quotes from sources,
question the received wisdom around the topic and compose the story in
journalistic style. Once again, break down their efforts line by line in
comparison with a professional journalists' story on the same topic.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
Then, in the second class... more doing the work at a breakneck pace,
more being pushed beyond their current level of expertise, more
corrections of errors and weaknesses, step by step, in a pressure-cooker
of deadlines.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
I can pretty much guarantee the students in such a directed
apprenticeship will learn more about writing in a week than they would
in a year of conventional coursework.</div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">Short,
intense directed apprenticeships that teach students how to learn on
their own to mastery are the future of higher education</b>. We can
continue to squander trillions of dollars on an ineffective system until
it finally collapses under its own weight, or we can admit the current
contraption is unsustainable and a failure, and move on to a better,
cheaper system.<br>
<br>
<i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FYBYQZ4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01FYBYQZ4&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20&linkId=AXNFHTKZO2653EFV" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All</a> is now available as an Audible audio book.</i></div>
<div style="border:0px none;color:rgb(64,64,64);font-family:Verdana,verdana,sans-serif;font-size:13px;font-stretch:inherit;padding:10px;vertical-align:baseline">
<i style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline"><b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">My new book is #2 on Kindle short reads -> politics and social science: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ELXQZGE/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01ELXQZGE&linkCode=as2&tag=charleshughsm-20&linkId=33DAOPEVGBNGBS37" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform</a></b> ($3.95 Kindle ebook, $8.95 print edition)<b style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline">For more, please visit the <a href="http://www.oftwominds.com/SQ-book.html" style="border:0px none;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;line-height:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline" target="_blank">book's website</a>.</b></i></div><br></div></div>
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