The answer to that challenge involves time. Time to design this new system, all the while communicating with the world what the team is considering and coming up with. Then more time once the framework is agreed upon to test the various fundamentals, reporting constantly on what is being seen as we test ways to train parenting and whether or not the test subjects are pleased with the experience and the results. Other teams testing infrastructure, still others testing existing learning materials and courses. And even more people will be working through all the implications to teachers, buildings, unions, standards, tax structures, and a hundred other interdependent steps in the process of conversion and sustainment. The aim, aside from being able to sell the new system to governments around the world, is to raise awareness of the benefits of said new system.

One of the effects of this gradual stream of information into the world’s awareness will be the subtle modeling of responsibility for those who are not conscious that they exhibit little of it. Responsibility is learned. It took generations for parents to forget their obligation to teach values to their children—the foundation of social responsibility—it will take a while to remind them.

You will notice that the new system will begin with parents and those parents will begin with training. Values (honesty, respect, appreciation, understanding, etc.) and responsibility will be crucial elements in that training. Does that help to understand why I am not worried about the impact of the current state of self indulgence?

Your concern about my choice of “homogenized” may be well founded. Looking it up I see the majority of the definitions and synonyms are all about losing our individuality. Only a few come close to what I had in mind: integrate, mix, or mingle. My vision is learning about other people’s religions, cultures, customs, history and environments as a result of the technology that allows our teacher or some of our class to be thousands of miles away. Instead of leaving that learning to only those who choose to study such things, increased awareness of our place within a global population will likely be a constant and subtle element of learning any topic. Since we will all be learning and teaching throughout our lives in this new system, I see a world growing much more understanding of our differences as people.

Your question whether or not there is regional disparity in the parenting skills of young parents is a good one. However, rather than dig for the data, can we agree that there is little-to-no consistency in parenting knowledge or methods across the planet? As with most learned skills, there are bound to be some competent parents. But from personal experience, observation, and basic probability there is room for improvement in even the best of parents, simply because we have no way to be sure that all parents get some exposure to the fundamentals of what it takes to succeed. As a reminder, the first goal that started me on this journey was to come up with a way to teach parents how to parent as well as we taught them how to give birth.

Thanks for your time and thoughts, Tom. I look forward to hearing if this was helpful.

You’re much deeper thinker than poor old me, but what are the underlying assumptions about people in general that would support the type or reform you are discussing?

In my observations there is a 85/15 rule. 15% of the population will take the responsibility to get involved to the point you’re talking about. The other 85% will have to be constantly pushed, cajoled or otherwise motivated. 85% of the population doesn’t want to think about or deal withe the effort required to make the kind of change you’re describing. So how do you move such a dramatic change to the education system forward?

One other aspect of your discussion makes me uncomfortable and maybe I just don’t understand your perspective. “Cultural learning would be homogenized”? I’m not sure I would want that. So I will need to hear more.

You also describe some behavioral issues in with the educational discussion. Are you saying changing the educational method is required to affect change in young adults so that they understand and accept responsibility for raising their children? My experience is a little different. I see the youngest parents accepting and showing more responsibility in raising their children properly from a behavioral and cultural perspective. It may be a regional thing as I have spent considerable time in the south and mid-west and see a more conservative social norm than is exhibited in the northeast or the the west coast or is reported since the mainstream media is dominated from those two regions.

Anyway its an interesting discussion even though I’m not as eloquent as yourself or Dan.

In particular, I appreciate O’Rourke’s observation that public education provided a crucial transition path out of the chaotic mix of cultures and education that we as a nation began with. But that is not the challenge of education now, nor is it the method best tuned to the lifestyles present and the technology available. I smiled at his reference to hiring Aritstotle, as I often use this image of a gathering of students around a sage, wise, loving mentor under trees on a mountainside, in a public library, or in a corporate data center when trying to help people see what I see for education of the future. Note that such a model of education is a free market, performance-driven model capable of being fine-tuned to the learning styles and needs of of the pupils, as well as the expertise of the teacher.

The implications of your statement, “… desirable for each citizen to be an active part of the education system” bear some discussion. It’s easy to think that what you are saying is akin to parent involvement in schools, as simple as chaperoning a field trip, or as intensive as committing 2 hours in the classroom per week. But that is not what I hear when I read that, and I suspect you do not either. I am not fully convinced of this, but very close to believing that public education is not a right. It’s a personal obligation. The access to tools (public broadband), societal understanding and support, and buy-in of companies of all sizes would have to happen first, but the perception of education as a public right somehow guaranteed by the Constitution is what leads repeatedly back to all the ills of the current system. How can a government at any level stand behind a system that is 400 million unique educational objectives, all on different time schedules, all with different standards for comprehension and completion? Or fund such a system if the sources of information and training (i.e. the end point of the money trail) are distributed throughout the globe?

The benefits of the new system—whatever it becomes—will be measured not in academic criteria, but in peace, self fulfillment, understanding, collaboration, and plurality. These are the criteria of global citizens, the only true end point of any education system. Do you agree?

http://weeklystandard.com/articles/end-them-don't-mend-them

The outline which P.J. proposes would allow for the type of outcome which I have briefly described, at a cost less than or equal to what we spend now, and with a reward to the teachers in excess of what is currently paid for teaching.