(Education Reconsidered)

Roger Schank
Chairman, Socratic Arts Corp
Chairman, Engines for Education
Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University
 Once upon a time there was
great kingdom that was under
constant threat from dragons…
The Dragons Were Fierce

 The
Dragons
were a
threat to
children
The King asked scholars from
the best universities to form a
curriculum committee to
design a curriculum to train
dragon slayers
 The committee consisted of…
 arts faculty from Columbia
 science faculty from Princeton
 business faculty from Stanford
 medical faculty from Johns Hopkins
 law faculty from Harvard
 engineering faculty from MIT
 humanities faculty from Yale
 They all had some important
questions to contribute
 Arts: what do we know about how we have traditionally
depicted dragons?
 Science: what do we know about its habitat and mating rituals?
 Business: Is there a sustainable business in dragon hunting?
 Medical: What is the physiology of the dragon?
 Law: Do dragons have rights? Might there be lawsuits?
 Engineering: Will we need to build roads and bridges or
design new weapons?
 Humanities: How is dragonese related to other known
languages?
 The New Curriculum
MCDB 060a, Topics in Reproductive Biology of Dragons
ENGL 342b, Mythology and Community in Eighteenth-Century Dragon\
Literature.
ENAS 445a, Environmental Risk Assessment
ENAS 194b, Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations with Applications.
HIST 234b, Epidemics and Society in the West caused by Dragons since 1600.
PHYS 461b, Relativity, Astrophysics, Cosmology, and Dragons.
PHIL 427b, Vagueness and the Sorites Paradox.
PSYC 149b, Dragon Communication and Human Language.
PSYC 302b, How the Dragon’s Brain Works.
 Second Year
 Dragon Rights  Dragons and
Workshop Globalization
 Intro to Negotiations  Cost Benefit Analysis of
 Business Ethics and Slaying Dragons
Corporate
Responsibility in  Mathematical Modeling
Dragon Hunting and Its Application in
 Contagious: How Financing Dragon
Dragon-Related Expeditions
Products, Ideas and  Urban Public Policy and
Behaviors Can Catch Private Economic
On Development
 Two Years Later:
there were 25 new
graduates (most with honors)

So, they went out

to slay dragons
Three of them formed a team
but...
 They had not learned
how to finance their
expedition, and so they
could find no funding

 They decided slaying

dragons was not lucrative
and all went into another
line of work
Six of the graduates formed
another team...
 They couldn’t get along
with each other
 One member was
maimed when his gun
misfired
 Two others got into a
violent argument about
strategy
 The rest ran away and
were never heard from
again
 The remaining
graduates were more
successful

They formed three

teams and went to
find the dragon
Team One...
 Got financing
 Got along well with each
other
 Agreed on strategy
 Procured the proper
weapons and supplies
 Proceeded to search for
the dragon...
But, they never could
find a dragon to slay

So, they formed a

company to train dragon
slayers
The second team encountered the
dragon...
 They tried to reason with
the dragon but only one
graduate could
remember how to speak
Dragonese
 He had failed the
negotiation course
 He really annoyed the
dragon
The dragon ate all four
members of the team
for lunch
(picture omitted for reasons of taste)
The third team found the dragon
and engaged it in battle
 But they had never
fought a dragon before
 It was faster than they
expected
 Its flame was hotter than
they expected
 Their plan of attack was
not well coordinated
End of the Dragon quest
 One team member was
chased off a cliff
 A second was melted
by the dragon
 A third ran away
 When the dragon
calmed down, the
remainder of the team
negotiated a deal
 They are now doing
Public Relations for the Dragon
 They used what they
learned in negotiation
class
 And what they learned in
art class
 And what they learned in
business classes
 “Why are you
teaching subjects?”

said the King

 Harvard in 1892
elementary studies
advanced studies :
 English
 Greek  Greek
 Latin  Latin
 German  Greek Composition
 French  Latin Composition
 Ancient History  German
 Modern History  French
 Algebra  Logarithms and Trigonometry
 Plane Geometry  Solid Geometry
 Physical Science  Analytic Geometry
(Descriptive)
 Mechanics or Advanced Algebra
 Physical Science
 Physics
(Experimental)
 Chemistry
 What is wrong with subjects?
 The subjects are determined by academics
 The subjects reflect the research interests of the faculty
 The subjects do not connect to each other
 Students choose them for the wrong reasons
 You can’t remember what you learned in them
 They tend to not be experiential
 They are often about preparing for exams
 Requirements are set by the faculty to make sure that people attend
their courses
Why do students put up with this?
 They get certification
 They get beer and circus
 They don’t have to work too hard
 They figure they can deal with the “real world”
later on
 They see this as a kind of summer camp
 Daddy pays for it
“And why do we even
have courses?”
asked the King
 Why do we have courses?
 Professors only know their own subjects
 They can teach three hours a week and then go
back to their real work
 The real goal of a professor is to train
researchers
 Students have lots of free time if they are only in
class 12 hours a week
“And why do we have
classrooms?”
said the King
 Why do we have classrooms?
 1850: Only one teacher in the town
 1950: Only way to keep education costs down
 2010: Because we have always done it that way
 The notion that some 1916 – John Dewey
subjects and methods and
that acquaintance with
certain facts and truths
possess educational value in
and of themselves is the
reason why traditional
education reduced the
material of education so
largely to a diet of
predigested materials.
 There are two
types of
education... One
should teach us
how to make a
living, And the
other how to live.

--John Adams
 Plato
 According to my view, any one
who would be good at anything
must practice that thing from his
youth upwards, for example, he
who is to be a good builder,
should play at building children's
houses; he who is to be a good
husbandman, at tilling the
ground; and those who have the
care of their education should
provide them when young with
mimic tools.
It’s been like this for a while now

I'm sure the reason such young nitwits are

produced in our schools is because they have no
contact with anything of any use in everyday life.
 Petronius (d. circa 66 CE) The Satyricon.
 “And why do we do
standardized testing?
asked the King
“Even the DMV has two
tests”

said the King

“Look what we are
producing”
said the King
“What are our graduates
prepared to do?”
asked the King
 What was this man prepared to do?
 Fall Term 1987
 Natural Language &Computer
 Introduction – Ethics
 Computers and Society
 Intermediate Spanish 1
 Spring Term
 Physc Bases for Biology
 Intro/Artificial Intelligence
 Logic
 Intermediate Spanish 2
 Literary Expression
 American History
 Calculus Funct 1 variable
 General Physics
 Fall Term 1988
 Natural Language Processing
 Moral Responsibility
 Introduction to Psychology
 Cognition and the Brain
 Spring Term 1989
 Knowledge & Understanding
 Tchngs/Symbolic Programming
 Special Projects
 Cognitive Process of the Brain
 Political Psychology
 Fall Term (1989)
 Language Culture & Society
 Intro History of Art
 Personhood&Persnl Dev
 Esthetics Naturalized
 Cultr&Devlpmt of Thought
1988
 Spring Term 1990
 Science & Social Weapon
 Prspectvs Uncnscs Mnt Prc
 Directed Reading-Psyc1
 Directed Research
 Organizational Disasters
 Fall Term 1990
 Senior Project
 Science and Literature
 Directed Research
 Social Change & the Future
 Spring Term 1991
 Computers & Education
 Senior Project
 Tutorial
 Directed Research
What was this woman prepared to do?
 Fall Term 1987  Fall Term 1989

 English 125-13 EngPoetChaucer-Eloiot1  CptSci 110a Elements of Computing

 French 130-16 Intrmdt&Advanced French1  English 170a Chaucer
 PolScie 116a Intro Comparatv Politics  English 254a English Romantic Novel
 Psychi 110a-2 Introductn to Psychology  English 307a Black Women&Thir Ficnts
 Soclgy 117a Ineqlty&OprtuntyAmerSoc

 Spring Term 1988  Yale In London

 Eng&AS 110b Prspecvs on Technology  Spring Term 1990

 English 125-11 EngPoetsChaucer-Elliot2
 French 130-16 Intrmdt&AdvancedFrench2  Britst 216b Shkspr&RnssncEnglshDrm
 Musci 232b Mozart  BritSt 371b British Painting in 1SC
 Relst 197b Relgn/AmerSoc, 1840-1980  BritSt 468b Critics Colonial Policy
 BritSt 470b Britain in S Africa

 Fall Term 1988

 Fall Term 1990
 Archtr 150a Intro to Architecture I
 English 192a Engl Renaissance Poetry  Anthro 254 JapaneseSociety&Culture
 French 138-7 Advnced Language Prctcel  English 235a The Age of Johnson
 Philos 116a History Ancient Philosophy  English 265a The Victorian Novel
 English 281a 19thC Amrlit, 1865-1910
 Spring Term 1989  History 142a NAmericn Envrnmntl History

 English 301b 20thC British Novel  Spring Term 1991

 French 138-1 Advanced Language Prctce 2
 HsArt 115b Intro/Rnssance-Present  English 309b V Woolf Tests & Contexts
 HsArt 249b ArtArcItlyFrnc 16001715  HsArt 299b Modern Architecture
 English 342b Problems Cultrl Criticism
 English 447b Modern American Drama
 In 2008…
Jonathan L. Zittrain (born 1969)
is an American professor of
Internet law at the Oxford Internet
Institute of the University of
Oxford; co-founder, visiting
professor and researcher at the
Berkman Center for Internet &
Society of Harvard University;
visiting professor at the New York
University School of Law; author,
most recently, of The Future of the
Internet and How to Stop It; and
co-editor of the book Access
Denied.
(from Wikipedia)
I spent several years as a
legal assistant in New York,
D.C. and San Francisco;
worked briefly as a client
services coordinator for a
legal staffing firm; and most
recently worked as a copy
editor for CNET News.com
before taking time off to have
kids. I am currently a stay-
at-home parent but plan to
return to editing (at least
part-time) when my younger
child is 6 or so.
“And why is teaching done
in this awful way?”
asked the King
What do we teach?
 Why do we make
teachers into the ultimate
judge of their student’s
success?
 Why do we teach theory
first and practice second
(if at all)?
Why do we come up with
lists of knowledge that
every student must
know?
 Why do we teach
something without explaining
the use of learning it?
Why do we load students
with homework?
 Why do rarely teach
students things they
actually may need to know
after they leave school?
 Why do we make
“pleasing the teacher” the
goal of the student?
 “Who is profiting from the
testing and standardization
obsessions?”
asked the King
 Just a few of them…
 ETS – 1 Billion in revenues
 McGraw Hill – 4 billion
 Houghton-Mifflin
 Washington Post – 2.6 billion
 Albert Einstein
 "One had to cram all this
stuff into one's mind for
the examinations, whether
one liked it or not. This
coercion had such a
deterring effect on me that,
after I had passed the final
examination, I found the
consideration of any
scientific problems
distasteful to me for an
entire year."
“ Aren’t there thinking
skills you should be
teaching?”

asked the King

 “ What cognitive
processes underlie
thinking and learning?”

asked the King

 The main Cognitive Processes
1. Prediction
2. Judgment 10. Diagnosis
3. Modeling 11. Planning
4. Experimentation 12. Causation
5. Describing
6. Managing
13. Influence
7. Step by Step 14. Teamwork
8. Artistry 15. Negotiation
9. Values 16. Goal Conflict
Prediction
Judgment
Modeling
Diagnosis
Planning
Causation
Teamwork
Goal Conflict
“Why doesn’t the faculty
want to teach thinking
skills?”
asked the King
 To what extent do you
think the faculty actually
cares about the answer
to this question?
 Concerns of the Yale faculty:
 Getting tenure
 Getting published
 Becoming important in one’s field
 Making extra money by consulting
 Being invited to give talks at meetings and
universities
 Being respected by one’s colleagues and by the
administration
 The Yale faculty’s concerns
about teaching…
 They should be able to teach as little as possible
 They should be able to teach at convenient
times
 They should get to teach advanced seminars that
count against their teaching load
 They should not have to teach large
introductory courses
 They should be able to get a semester off from
teaching whenever possible
 What do
professors
teach?
 Important
professors
teach anything
they want
 “And why are you
teaching by talking?”
asked the King
 “Why haven’t your
provided students with
experiences?”

asked the King

 Immanuel Kant
 That all our
knowledge begins
with experience
there can be no
doubt. ...no
knowledge of ours is
antecedent to
experience, but
begins with it.
 All there is to know about learning
on one slide
 You have a goal (a real thing that you want to happen)
 You have an expectation that a plan of action will
achieve it
 The plan fails (this is what it means to have an
experience)
 You need an explanation of why your expectation was
wrong (this is called thinking)
 You adapt an old explanation or someone provides you
with a new one
 You create a new expectation and try again
“What about the role
of stories in learning?”
said the King
Every curriculum
should tell a story.
The story should be one that tells what the life
of a dragon slayer is like
(and it should involve lots of practice)
 Carnegie
Mellon
Silicon Valley
 VISTA: replacing high school

 Health Sciences
 Computer Programming
 Business
 Communications

4 of 100 (I hope)
 Online experiential
web-mentored MBA at
LaSalle BES (Barcelona)
Purpose:
 To provide a more practical education than a traditional
MBA, teaching skills really used in business
 Geared toward those aiming to work:
 In a family business
 In an entry level job in a large corporation
 As an entrepreneur
 Courses (Stories) in LaSalle
MBA-Alternative Program

Course 1: Cash Crisis

Course 2: Going Online

Course 3: Marketing for a Product Launch

Course 4: Supply Chain Reaction

Course 5: Investment Readiness

Course 6: Ethical Governance and Change Management: The Story of a

21st Century Business (A Novel)

Course 7: Sales and Project Management

 Cash Crisis

 Students learn how to MODEL two business processes in order to solve business
problems. The processes are financial analysis and financial planning. They do this
in a STEP-BY-STEP process, in order to create a conscious model in their
minds. Within the model they need to deal with CAUSATION by examining
how different past decisions are causing current financial problems. Putting the
causes together and looking at the complex interrelationships between causes and
effects enable them to DIAGNOSE the current situation, which they must
DESCRIBE in an understandable way for a non-financial expert. Then,
considering what the company plans to do in the future and using the financial
planning process they PREDICT the financial consequences of the plan. Finally
they correct the PLAN to have the right outcomes and PREDICT what they
think would be a good final solution to the problem. They practice
TEAMWORK and must INFLUENCE OTHERS and NEGOTIATE with
team members.

They also practice how to use tools such as excel sheets and learn the STEP-By
STEP processes contained in them.

 Going Online

 In this course students mainly design a new web site. To design

anything one must PLAN what one wants to do and MODEL
the behavior of potential users. They PLAN the sequence of
activities the user will be able of doing. They PREDICT the
potential choices the user will have and define each outcome for
each choice. They MODEL the whole process consciously.
They DESCRIBE the model and/or pieces of the model using
PowerPoint presentations and specific tools such as “persona”
profiles or lists of requirements. They make JUDGEMENTS
based on evidence when comparing the two proposals that
consultants have submitted. They EXPERIMENT when
performing the user test and make design decision based on the
user test conclusions.
 Reengineer a supply chain

Students work with a complex business process, the supply

chain, which encompasses up to 5 sub-processes. The main
skills is again MODELING, students build a conscious model
of the processes. They deal with CAUSATION when
identifying root causes for the problems. They practice
DESCRIBING when presenting reports and
recommendations to the board and JUDGEMENT when
evaluating based on information provided, the capacity of the
company to undertake the supply chain full reengineering. They
practice DIAGNOSIS when they are required to analyze root
causes of problems and identify requirements to fix those
problems.
 teaching a cognitive process
means…

 Providing an experience
 Enabling failure
 A discussion of that experience.
 Helping students gradually acquire a case base
 Progressing to more complex cases, and more
nuanced and sophisticated discussions
“Instead of creating
dragon scholars
shouldn’t we focus
on producing
dragon slayers?”

asked the King

“Let’s build
a new
system”
said the
King
 The old system vs. The new system
 Schools chosen by location
 Teacher available during class
hours
 Teacher located near you
 Students sit in class together
but do their work alone
 Students evaluated by tests
and essays produced at
certain times
 The system is local
 Certification done by schools
 Curricula chosen by interest
 Mentors always available as needed
 Mentors can be anywhere
 Students may not see each other
but they work in teams
 Students evaluated by what various
deliverable; time is not a factor
 The system is global
 Certification done by international
associations
 Who designs curricula?
 Any curriculum can be delivered worldwide to
anyone in any language who is capable of doing
the work
 Available curricula are determined by actual
needs
 Curricula are designed by expert practitioners
not by academics
 In this global system…
 Students do not choose between universities or
different schools
 They choose curricula that interest them and
that help them prepare for real life
 They choose mentors with whom they want to
work
 Many different curricula will be developed and
offered worldwide
 We can do this in all arenas of
education
 Masters degree programs
 College programs
 New kinds of high school programs
 New kinds of non-stressful fun programs for
smaller kids
 Corporate training
Why am I doing this?