Can you read?
Of course, you can. Reading is fundamental to the way we get information, and we start teaching kids the basics as soon as they hit school, if not earlier. But now consider this story, and its implications for our educational system.
Some years ago, I babysat my nephew, Brody, who at the time was only 4 years old. Moments after he was dropped off, he walked confidently up to the Alexa in my kitchen and asked for cookie recipes. He picked one of the pictures she showed him, and then asked if we could make it. Later he plopped himself on my couch, grabbed the remote control, and asked for “brothers playing Nerf gun wars.” He picked one of the videos, and then asked if I would watch with him. Lucky me.
Yes, the story is cute, but that’s not why it is significant. Without even knowing how to read, my nephew obtained very specific information. Thanks to machines like Siri, Alexa, Cortona, Hey Google, and our TV remotes, our kids have access to a mind-boggling array of information.
My nephew’s effortless acquisition of a cookie recipe looks almost nothing like the way I acquired one at the age of four. I had to ask my busy mom for help, while Brody asked a plastic machine that was at his beck and call. I had access to less than 50 recipes, curated by the women in my life, while he had access to millions, curated by bakers all over the world. I chose a cookie recipe by finding the messiest notecard written by my Nana, while Brody chose the photo he liked best.
While I might argue that recipes on soiled note cards hold superior cookie-making information, no one can argue that the process of acquiring that information has completely changed. Information acquisition is now easy. Thankfully Brody acquired innocent information, but he had access to so much more.
Why, then, is information ACQUISITION still the focus of education? Think about how much time we spend teaching our kids how to read, write, find, memorize, restate, and paraphrase information. Don’t get me wrong. Those are all important, but today, in our wizard-filled world, they are insufficient.
So, what’s missing? Well, consider that Facebook’s recent scandal is not about its acquisition of information but its administration of that information. Facebook organized, curated, and presented information, in ways that encouraged destructive habits, polarized political polarization, and misinformation.
Yes, Facebook has plenty of responsibility regarding the information we can acquire on its site, but we share responsibility, especially in the use and application of information. We can all use information to build a bomb, ruin a reputation, cheat…and the list goes on.
Now is the time to shift our focus to the wise ADMINISTRATION of information, and to be good administrators, we must learn to responsibly organize, curate, present, use and apply it. And we cannot expect our hardworking educators to accomplish that alone. Each of us must roll up our sleeves and jump in the arena. From the moment we start teaching our kids how to read, we should be teaching them guidelines for the wise administration of the ideas they will learn.
My contribution to this effort is a book on wisdom that has a basic yet comprehensive framework for the wise assessment and application of information. In the next couple of months, I’ll be sharing some of my work, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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