While we have seen Education  alone isn’t the path to “More”(It’s an Elephant 1/25/16), it is a very important building block. Our present Educational system suffers from the twin blemishes of being ineffective while being ridiculously expensive. At the K12 level the whole format is hopelessly out of date. In this wonderful interconnected world somehow we are using a basically 19th century Prussian teaching model adapted at that time in the U.S. by Horace Mann. While a rigid system of lecture, drill and exams working your way up yearly grades may have worked centuries ago, it is evident we could so much better adapting to modern educational opportunities. For instance look at the worldwide success of the online Khan Academy. Kids learn online, combine the online and classroom or the home. Seemingly endless learning variations, but isn’t that the point. Each child learns differently, but all have a natural curiosity. With the ability to customize the learning experience to the needs of each child to a degree never even contemplated in the nineteenth century, why are we stuck with this antique system? Continue reading →