Technology Billionaires Trying to Remake America's Schools
The main thing we can learn from history, is that we do not in fact learn from history. That&#x27;s what I have taken from B.H. Liddell Hart&#x27;s great little book &quot;Why Don&#x27;t We Learn From History?&quot; and it is exactly what is happening here in education, again.<p>Today on the HN homepage there was an article about how NJ was the innovation hub of American before the Valley, which generated a nice discussion. Akarnani recounted the story of Fred Terman&#x27;s failed effort to make NJ more like the Valley. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14497136" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=14497136</a><p>This historical anecdotes illustrates how even when many essential pieces are present (money, smart people, etc) it is a nearly Sisyphean task to change a system and a culture. The great management thinker W. Edwards Deming once said &quot;a bad system will beat a good person every time&quot; and that is the history of the past 60 years in education reform. I wrote about that in more detail here.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@m_pettyjohn&#x2F;on-humans-hard-problems-and-complex-systems-8c2aa2d176a2" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@m_pettyjohn&#x2F;on-humans-hard-problems-and-...</a><p>This NYTimes article reaches out and touches nearly every broken aspect of education that makes improvement seem intractable. Zuckerberg wasted $100 million in Newark and seemingly came away learning the wrong lessons. Benioff, big hearted and charitable, has his heart in the right place, but long-term will have little impact.<p>With that in mind it is almost inconsequential what the Silicon Valley billionaires do in education.<p>There is massive potential in our teachers and students, but to unleash it we need to understand our history, take a systems view and approach, and genuinely understand the discipline of management, which even to the big successes in the Valley seems like an afterthought.<p>If you&#x27;re outside (or even inside!) education, reading The Case of Mrs. Oublier, a study of one California teacher during the state&#x27;s massive 80&#x27;s reform effort, can be enlightening to the challenges faced.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;393methods1.wikispaces.com&#x2F;file&#x2F;view&#x2F;Cohen,+D.+K.+(1990).pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;393methods1.wikispaces.com&#x2F;file&#x2F;view&#x2F;Cohen,+D.+K.+(1...</a>