There is always much talk about ‘school improvement’. I think that we don’t need improvement, we need innovation.

Improvement is doing the same thing, just a little bit better. Innovation is doing – something completely different – which is hopefully also way better.

Think about how little the core schooling system has changed in the last hundred years – students sitting in rows, bells ringing, teacher standing at the front, ominous reports, uniforms, prison-like atmosphere. It is pretty cleat this organisational structure is becoming more and more outdated as the rest of society advances apace.

We need bold innovations that completely shake up the existing system – things like altschool, vertical grades, simulations, challenge / problem based learning, self-directed learning and teaching students to learn and think for themselves rather than force-feeding them content. And a million other things that haven’t been thought of yet.

School is already behind the times and it isn’t even keeping pace. If we don’t innovate, and soon, school may become irrelevant. We’re lucky that the government mandates that everyone goes to school or it might have happened already….