Educate for Problem-Solving, Not Factories

Good article in Forbes about what education should be like, with interesting statistics from 1948 about homework and lots of information about very successful contemporary programs.

Frankly, just about everything mentioned are things we do in Montessori schools.

“It’s the teacher’s job to point young minds towards the right kinds of questions,” suggests Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University.

“The teacher doesn’t need to give any answers, the answers are everywhere. And we know now from years of measurements, that learners who find the answers for themselves, retain it better than if they’re told the answer.”Been doing this 105 years now!

How to Rank Colleges and Universities

Here's the interesting methodology the Center for College Affordability and Productivity uses to rank institutions - and then is published in Forbes. I'm especially happy to see their measures of productivity, i.e. how well do the students do after graduation.