Last year, a documentary film called ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and is now playing in communities around the world. Reviewers say that the documentary makes a compelling case for how education systems must change in order to nurture people to be innovators and creators of the future. Most Likely to Succeed
Most Likely to Succeed Trailer from One Potato Productions on Vimeo.
Tony Wagner, author of the book by the same name, argues that today’s educational challenges demand reform and re-invention of education. He says that teaching ALL students NEW skills requires different ways of teaching and new ways of working with your students. – Overcoming the global achievement gap
Today knowledge is ubiquitous, constantly changing, growing exponentially… Today knowledge is free. It’s like air, it’s like water. It’s become a commodity… There’s no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know’ – Tony Wagner in Creating Innovators: Why America’s Education System Is Obsolete. April 25, 2012
On 7 December 2015, the Australian Government launched its Innovation and Science Agenda claiming that welcoming an ‘Ideas Boom’ is an important step in the right direction to ensure that our children leave school with the ‘skills and the agility to identify opportunities and embrace risk.’ At the launch the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said:
We want to be a culture, a national culture of innovation, of risk-taking, because as we do that, we grow the whole ecosystem of innovation right across the economy. We become more experienced, more innovative, and more agile; more prepared to take on risk and become a culture of ideas because it is the ideas boom that will secure our prosperity in the future. It is believing in our human capital and remembering that the best assets we have, the most important assets we have in this country are not to be found under the ground, but walking around on top of it is the 24 million Australians, the men and women of Australia, these and their ideas are what secures our future.” – Launch of the National innovation & Science Agenda
How do you think we might create ‘cultures of ideas’ in our schools, homes and communities?
Share your thoughts below.