Most Likely to Succeed (2015) - full transcript

- Three and four.

From the textbook
if you need help.

You're going to want to
keep all of your math work

with you because
your math work is

- My daughter had always
been a good student.

Always loved school.

Then suddenly, in the fourth
grade, just kind of quit.

She wasn't interested
in school anymore.

She'd struggle to
get out of bed.

And she'd fake being sick.

Getting her to
complete her homework



was a total battle.

It's as if almost
overnight she decided,

school wasn't for her.

After she brought home a
bad score on a math test,

we requested a meeting
with her teacher.

- Well, my concern is,

when she comes home,
for example, this math test

brought it up again which
is, she pulls up

the math test, I say, okay,
what did you do wrong?

And she seems to have
absolutely no idea.

I know her well enough
to where she's testing

is--

- Way below.
- Not where she should be.

- One of the things I've
just been thinking about is



you know, we had a very
frank talk the other night

before she fell asleep
and, I don't know how to

work through this but
she just kind of said,

I said, well describe to
me how you feel in class,

what's going on?

Because as I said,
it's as if she was never here

for some length.

Now sometimes she's not here.

- Yeah.

- But when she is
here, she's not here.

And clearly there's
talking going on

and what not but, I said,
so when you're looking

up at the, you know,
it's math time.

- Yeah.

- What are you feeling?

And she said, I just,
I look up and I'm not interested.

- Really?

My daughter's in
law school right now

and Scout,
everybody that gets into law school

has to be pretty smart to get
there, right?

So, it's a lot of people
who are really smart

in law school and
my daughter is,

for the first time,
it's really hard for her.

Truthfully,
you're building a new character

right now,
you're building that perseverance,

and that sense of,
I want to do my best.

- Now freeze.

Look at that face right there.

I know that face.

That face is saying,
this is bullshit.

This whole thing called
school is bullshit.

Now later that night,
after this conference at home,

I'll tell her that school
seems meaningless now,

but later when she's
applying to college

or when she's looking for a
job, she'll understand

what this was all for.

She needs to take
this seriously now

because one day,
she'll see that this will

all make sense.

But after spending two
years working on this film,

I now worry that these
things that I told

my daughter and
my son are a lie.

The idea of enduring the
drudgery of standardized tests,

traditional homework,
lectures, will build

the kind of character in
them that will one day

lead to a happier life,
may no longer be true.

Consider this
economist out of MIT

who argues that kids who will
go on to do well in school

and graduate from college
won't necessarily be able

to find a job.

Most parents today grew
up in a world that saw

the U.S.
economy grow and median income

grow with it.

And that's always been true.

Until here.

Curiously, around the late
90s, the economy

had grown but middle
class income had not.

In essence, the U.S.
economy is now

able to produce more
wealth while hiring

fewer and fewer people
and this is troubling

particularly for
college graduates.

In addition to being
saddled with record levels

of debt, 53% of all
recent college graduates

either can't find a job
or are working at a job

they could've just
as easily have found

if they skipped
school altogether.

This trend,
according to the economist

is not because of the recession.

It's not because China is
stealing all of our jobs.

It's because of a startling
shift in technology

that's probably best
illustrated in an event

that occurred back in 1997.

- Garry Kasparov is
one of the worlds

all-time great chess players.

He played a series
of matches against

an IBM super computer
called Deep Blue

and in 1997, Deep Blue beat him.

Not by a lot,
by a pretty narrow margin

but at that point,
the world's best chess player

was no longer a human being.

The story I've heard is that
the super computer geeks

at IBM were looking around
for the next challenge

after Deep Blue beat Kasparov.

Because computer chess
just became uninteresting.

And the story goes,
one of the IBM executives

or managers responsible
for thinking about this

was in a bar one
night and he noticed

that everyone in the
dining room got up

in the middle of dinner,
left their half eaten steaks

on their plates and ran
into the bar to watch TV.

And he thought some
amazing sporting event

was going on, it turns
out, they ran in there

to watch Jeopardy
because Ken Jennings

was in the middle
of an amazing run

as a Jeopardy champion.

He won 73 times in a
row, took home more than

three million dollars,
and became kind of a folk hero

in America because
he really did appear

to have been genetically
engineered and raised

from birth by ninjas to
play the game of Jeopardy.

And at that point,
the story goes, the IBM exec

said, I know what our
next challenge is.

We're going to build the
Jeopardy playing super computer.

- And welcome everyone to a
very special Jeopardy event.

This is Watson.

- I get a phone
call and they said,

IBM build that computer
to beat you at Jeopardy.

Would you be up for this?

I'm like, yes, you
know, this is like

the greatest thing
I've ever heard.

This is what the future
seemed like to me as a kid.

You know, robots would be
playing on TV game shows,

you know, but also,
I had like a pretty good idea

that I was gonna win.

I was a computer programmer
before I went on Jeopardy

so I'd taken like artificial
intelligence classes

at college and I knew
that there was no

computer out there that
could do what you would

have to do to win at Jeopardy.

You know, computers are
terrible at understanding

all language,
but Jeopardy clues are worse than most.

They've got double meanings
and puns and literary

illusions, and red herrings.

You know, there's a lot of
dots that have to be connected

and a lot of intuition going on.

And computers are bad at
making those kinds of leaps.

- Four letter word
from the iron fitting

on the hoof of a horse or a
card-dealing box in a casino.

Watson.

- What is shoe?

- You are right,
you get to pick.

Wanted for killing Sir Danvers
Carew, appearance

pale and dwarfish,
seems to have a split personality.

- Who is Hyde?

- Hyde, yes.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
either one acceptable.

You are now in the
lead with 1400.

- Who is Michael Phelps?

- Yes.

Go.

- What is event horizon?

Who is Grendel?

What is The Last Judgment?

- Correct, go again.

- You know,
I was standing to Watson's right.

And Watson actually has
a little mechanical thumb

so I could hear the sort
of insectoid clicking,

tchk, tchk, tchk,
tchk, tchk, tchk.

And as his score
mounted, you know,

I remember thinking,
you know, this is it.

It's sort of,
I sort of felt like you know,

some 80s Detroit auto
worker on the assembly line

looking at the robot
who had replaced him

on the welding machine
and I thought my job

of knowing things was not
going to be replaceable

by a computer and yet,
here it is, you know.

I'm obsolete and I'm obsolete
on national television.

So, maybe game show
contestant is the first

information age job
to be made obsolete

by our new computer overlords.

But I feel like it's not
going to be the last.

- This is a jobs report
that appeared on the Forbes

website and it's just kind
of a vanilla looking report

about corporate earnings.

The only thing
interesting about it to me

is that it was generated
entirely by an algorithm,

there was no human being
involved in producing

this or writing
it or editing it.

The company's called
Narrative Science

and what they do is
take a body of facts,

in other words all the
details of corporate earnings

and they write a prose
narrative about it.

And if you read these,
they are perfectly clean,

clear, English prose.

Now only a few years
ago we couldn't do this.

If you wanted to have
something written,

you had to involve a
human being in that work

and the consequence that
I spend a lot of time

thinking about is,
what are people going to do

for a living when their muscle
power really isn't valued

anymore because we
have all kinds of

muscle accelerators,
and then their mental power

is not as valued anymore
because we have these

astonishing digital
technologies that can do

mental things,
cognitive things that we used to

previously require people to do?

- Very soon we're
going to get to a world

where, you know,
a vast chunk of the American middle class

has a formerly safe job that can
be done by a computer or robot.

What happens to society
when hundreds of millions

of people have that
aimless rudderless feeling

of, you know,
I've been replaced by a very small box

or a very short shell script?

I don't know if
there's a solution.

- The last significant
change in the way

we educated our kids occurred
around 124 years ago.

It was the dawn of the
industrial revolution.

Most kids are raised on
farms and jobs were plentiful

and predictable.

Then in 1843,
an educator from Massachusetts

decides to visit
Prussia on his honeymoon

where he witnesses a brand
new type of education.

Up until that time,
education primarily consisted

of smart people sitting
around talking to

other smart people.

But after the Prussians
were embarrassed

in the Napoleonic Wars in the
1800s, this Prussian

decides to institute a
new type of education

for every German boy
from 7-14 years old.

Which results in a more
fit, more organized,

more obedient army.

Among his many
reforms was this idea,

to divide up instruction
according to age,

ability, and subject matter.

Strange as it seems
today, this had never been

done before.

This idea of teaching
math in one room,

science in another room.

Language skills in yet
another was totally new.

Horace Mann witnesses
this new educational model

and he's stunned.

Inspired by what he
sees, he brings these

educational ideas back to
the U.S where it captures

the attention of these men.

Just like the Prussians
who were anxious to develop

more obedient
troops, these fathers

of the Industrial
Revolution were desperate

to transform our nation of
disorganized farm laborers

into trained efficient
workers for their factory

and assembly line jobs.

- We divide the day
up in high school

into bits of time,
you know, to 40 or 50

minute blocks particularly,
then we ring bells

and people start to
shuffle around the building

and do something else.

That's an organizational
device, it's not an educational

principle,
and it is in broad sweeps

a system that resembles
a factory culture.

- If you built a factory
in upstate New York

and another along the Ohio
River, you desperately

needed these workers
to behave similarly,

to know the same
kinds of things.

If high school graduates
in Ohio could quote

Shakespeare but students
in New York couldn't even

write their own name,
it was difficult to build

a standard set of
factories which utilized

both sets of workers.

That's when it was decided
to form a committee

called The Committee of Ten.

The committee was
tasked with coming up

with a standard set of
subjects every kid should know.

- Ten University
heads in 1890 said,

in 11th grade everyone
should learn chemistry.

In senior year,
everyone should learn physics

and that it should be earth
science, they came up with

this whole trajectory,
calculus and a lot of these

subjects are great but these
priorities were dictated

120 years or 124 years ago.

- Back in 1892,
The Committee of Ten,

designed our nations curriculum
and for the most part,

it has not changed.

- The biggest
employer in Baltimore

50 years ago was
Bethlehem Steel Company.

You could actually
drop out of high school

fifty years ago,
go joined the steel union

getting a perfectly average job,

earning a perfectly
average wage,

which in time you get a
perfectly average mortgage

and buy a perfectly
average house,

with a perfectly average
yard, to have 2.0

perfectly average kids
who go to a wonderful,

perfectly average public school.

You could have a perfectly
average retirement

and have a perfectly
average funeral.

That is no longer the case.

- The economy that we
created over the course

of the 20th century was
an economy that needed

a large number of
moderately skilled people

who could do the three
R's and who could follow

pretty simple instructions
as we head deeper

in the 21st century,
I really don't think

that's the case anymore,
yet our educational system

still seems to be focused
on turning out people

with that same relatively
small set of skills.

My fear is that they're
heading into a society

and an economy and a
workforce that doesn't value

those skills very much anymore.

And I think we need to
take a good hard look

and figure out what
kinds of people,

what kinds of skills are
demanded in the technologically

extraordinary society and
economy that we're creating.

- I went to law
school for reasons

That I've never
figured out why I

kind of dropped out
after I just needed

a couple more courses and
then I have a good friend

Jack who's a guidance
counselor who said

one day, you know,
it's five years,

six years later, he said,
you're the type of person

who would take
the BAR on a dare.

And he didn't really dare
me, he said

you would take it on a dare.

So I thought about
it and I said,

maybe I should take the
BAR, you know.

And so I started
studying for the BAR.

I took it 16 years
after law school

and so I had all these books.

There was like a
shelf of all the books

I had to memorize
and it was useless

because this is my issue
with standardized testing,

I mean this is the
ultimate standardized test

is the BAR exam.

And so I thought that
maybe what I need to do

since it's just going in
one ear and out the other

was, I needed to draw the BAR.

I filled 28 pages in 10
weeks, drawing this thing,

And I would graph it
out because basically,

I can't understand text,
you know in linear fashion.

I mean, it just goes in
one ear and out the other.

I never reviewed it.

It was entirely the
act of drawing it.

Because I had drawn it
out, I would remember,

oh, promissory estoppel,
green arrow to red point

in contracts.

I'd visualize it and I saw
it, if I had

just read the text,
it wasn't working for me.

Some people,
we all learn in different ways.

That's the key thing,
we all learn in different ways.

This isn't the way to do it.

This is the way that I did it.

- This is Larry Rosenstock.

This is Larry 35 years ago.

Just after he dropped
out of law school,

he began teaching carpentry
to inner city kids

in Boston and what he
learned among other things,

was that if kids were
asked to build something

they were excited
about, they would,

of their own volition,
learn geometry.

If they believed it would
actually help them build

a better table or
a better chair.

Moreover,
these kids would actually remember

the geometry when
they went to build

the next table or chair.

Back in the mid 90s,
on the other side

of the country, this
man, had a problem.

His company was growing too fast

and he couldn't find
enough qualified applicants

to fill all the job
openings he had.

So, by the year 2000,
when Larry was writing

and lecturing about
what he was seeing

as a teacher,
in teaching through asking kids

to build stuff,
Irwin and his board had an idea.

What if they had Larry
design a whole school?

Not just one class,
but a whole school from scratch.

The name of the school he
built, High Tech High.

From the moment we
arrived, first hour,

first day of school
actually, we could tell

this place was different.

- So, the first thing that
you need to know is that

this is Socratic Seminar,
the lines represent tables,

the X's represent chairs.

I want you guys to set up
in Socratic Seminar, please.

They don't quite understand.

You guys have to move
tables and chairs

in that formation right there.

The lines represent tables,
the X's represent chairs.

I'm not going to help you guys,

you have to figure this out.

I think one of the things
that we tell the kids is,

listen, you have a choice.

I can micromanage you
through this thing

or you can do it on your own.

So then I think what
we do is we try to help

them figure out ways
that they can do it

on their own rather
than micromanaging

every little tiny step.

Some kids can do
it, some kids can't.

Ready?

In this seminar,
we just take turns.

And I know that probably
in your previous

eight years of school,
you've been trained

to raise your hands.

Not in seminar.

You need to talk to each
other and get used to that

instead of always looking at me.

So, what I'd like you to
do, if you'd pick out

one of these boxes,
you can give your opinion on it,

you can say anything you want.

Just bring in any
experience and anybody

can respond at any time, okay?

So, let's start with, Samantha.

- I like C-3.

- Would you care to
elaborate on that?

- Do I get my box?

- What's that?

- Well, I just,
I like it a lot because I never

thought about it that
way and it's really true.

- Okay, Elena.

- Sometimes, as she
said, like you have to

only read textbooks and
the teacher just talks

and talks with like no
emotion in their voice.

Logics that aren't
just not like reading

and taking notes all
day, filling out just

boring assignments every day.

- Define boring.

-Like...

it's hard to explain.

- Can anybody help her?

Define boring.

Okay, try to imagine
that we're going to get

to a point where I'm
not going to be here.

I'm going to be
sitting over there.

It's a beautiful thing,
have a 30-45 minute

conversation with no
adult, it's wonderful.

- For freshman,
especially the ones

who attended a traditional
school previously,

the first day at this
school can be disorienting.

High Tech High is a
school in San Diego.

50% of the kids who
attend High Tech High

are considered low income.

To attend, kids enter a
lottery and are selected

according to zip code.

As a result,
their demographic makeup

duplicates that of other
schools in their area.

It's a public school,
so they get public funds

from the State in order to
operate but they actually get

slightly less money per
pupil and slightly less

per teacher to do so.

There are a number
of things that make

High Tech High unique.

For instance,
there are no bells here.

The day is not divided
up in class periods.

Classes are not divided
up into subjects.

Instead, subjects are combined.

Also, they hire teachers
on one year contracts

and in exchange,
teachers are free to teach

any way they want.

Let me repeat that.

What teachers teach,
how much they teach,

is entirely up to them.

- So, I'm not beholden
to state standards

or you know, it's
like, we're not always

talking about the state,
the mandated state tests.

It's none of that.

We teach what we think
is best for the kids

and we also teach
to our passions.

- Teachers have a
lot more autonomy,

so one of our design principles
is teacher as designer.

So, in a traditional setting,

there will be a scope
in sequence document

of all of the curriculum
and it's set by

a sort of somebody from
without and it's very clear,

here's what it is,
here's what you need to do.

And so we have taken
a different approach,

which is that we try to
hire teachers who have

a strong passion for
an academic area.

That means that if you have
two ninth grade teachers,

they might not be covering
the exact same material.

Which makes people
feel very nervous.

Like, of course,
don't they all need to learn

the same things?

- They have a
blank canvas there.

They have a lot of freedom.

They have a lot of flexibility.

They have a lot
of accountability

because there's no
tenure and your contracts

are renewed every year,
but so many incredibly

talented people would
rather have that

in return for the total
intellectual freedom

that they have.

- So, Scott and I,
we started thinking about

putting together a
project for you guys

for the semester.

And we've got a few
different things

we wanted to make and
work on and cover.

- So, we're gonna start
with a basic concept.

Throughout history,
different civilizations

have come to be and then
just as quickly gone away.

And so we're going
to start with,

you guys are going to
be working with Mike

going over a lot of different
ancient civilizations.

Rome, Greece, Maya,
Easter Island,

and a bunch I probably
don't even know about.

And from that,
you're going to distill some theory,

something you find that
explains why civilizations

in general rise and also,
why they, in general, fall.

So the next piece is
we're going to take that

very abstract concept
and we're going to create

a physical manifestation of it.

You're going to find a
way, with gears

and linkages, that you can
represent your social theory.

And hopefully,
if Mike and I can figure

our stuff out,
it's going to come together

as a big exhibitable piece.

- We share a group
of about 60 students.

They're split in two classes.

And we spend two hours
a day approximately,

with each class and semi class.

They created these
individual series first.

And then group
theories as to why,

what trends they see.

What commonalities
they see in these

different civilizations
and how they rise and fall.

- So we all have
theories and you know

that every theory is different,
but all of our theories

think something like
this, right?

- It's a difficult process
to get civilization

back running,
which is why I think it takes

a lot longer than you
think for our cycles

to actually go all the
way through itself.

- Once the rebels
overthrow the government,

it kinda becomes a
never ending cycle,

where they don't really
become a strong government

because they have
disagreeable motives

so they're like controversial.

- Was there like an
exploration component

to yours at all or was it
other people coming in?

- Not necessarily.

It starts off at overpopulation,

which is sort of like the
peak of the civilization

and then goes down from there.

- The whole time
that was going on,

in my class,
I'd Identify a bunch of skills

they were going to need.

We were using a new
piece of equipment,

a laser cutter.

They were going to need
to use the software

to be able to use that.

They were gonna
have to learn about,

what are gears?

How do they work together?

What is torque?

What is angular velocity?

And then we said, okay,
here is your theory,

here are a bunch of
tools you now have,

how can you
mechanically represent

your theory in this way?

- Yeah,
yesterday for some reason

they were like stupid.

- No, I took off an entire
layer of part of this.

- On the positive side,

it's still not going to work.

- But we're missing that
piece, right?

- Man this thing is like--

- I know,
we need to cut off the pipe

and then it'll work, hopefully.

- No, it's because
these pegs are too big.

- Well, we could sand them down.

- Okay, this is everything
I've done so far.

It's all these pieces
like, prototypes,

first drafts, revisions,
and this is basically

our system,
we're going to have three layers.

And I'm making the
third layer right now.

It's just like,
it's so hard to think about.

But I don't feel behind anymore

because only two
groups are done.

- You think you'll
get done though?

- Yeah,
if I stay late every day.

- So instead of a
written cumulative exam

or a final exam,
we do things a little bit differently.

All of our projects
are planned around

a public exhibition.

- From its inception in 2000,

High Tech High has had a
night, every term,

in which the public is
invited to view student work.

So, how good a job
a teacher is doing,

or how well a student
is learning isn't judged

by a multiple choice
standardized test.

Instead, students, teachers,
even administrators

are all judged by
this one night.

- If you build a
house, it's a project.

If you make a school,
it's a project.

If you make a documentary
film, it's a project.

If yo write a book,
it's a project.

Most of what people do in
life involves observation,

reflection,
documentation, exhibition,

and going though
these different phases

of being able to
create something.

- The kind of work we
do in the real world

and the kind of people who
succeed in various kinds

of job settings are those
who are resourceful,

resilient, will keep at
it, will continue to learn,

have a learning
and growth mindset.

And when you organize
learning around these kinds

of intense projects,
that's what actually builds

grit, it builds perseverance,
it builds resourcefulness,

and it's what allows
people to be successful

when they get out of
the artificial system

we call school.

- For all of human
history, the primary focus

of education has been
acquiring more content

knowledge, right?

The whole idea is,
you know more stuff,

you're gonna be better
off for whatever

sets of reasons and
the only way to get it

is through the teacher.

You don't have to
do that anymore.

Today, content is ubiquitous.

It's free, it's on every
internet connected device.

And it's growing exponentially
and it's changing constantly.

If we can compete
with other countries,

it's got to be in
producing citizens capable

of innovative thinking.

Not citizens capable of
industrial production.

Not citizens capable
of assembling iPads.

We're going to lose if
that's what we think

we're producing.

The old blue collar
industrial motto of education

is already gone.

We're already
living in its wake.

I think what we need to
produce are the people

who seem to do well in this
new information economy

where creativity,
a kind of anti-authoritarianism

is celebrated,
cause these are people totally willing

to try stuff, to fail,
to learn from their failures,

and to try again.

We have to produce
those kinds of kids

and if you notice,
those are non cognitive traits,

I didn't say anything about
that they need to know

this about the world,
they need to know that,

I think we're moving
towards an education

that's all about skills.

And much less about retention
of a body of knowledge.

- In the classroom,
what do you think,

what do you think you
need to work on the most?

What do you think your,
one of your weaknesses is?

- Well,
I think one of my main weaknesses

is being too shy and too,
I remember when you asked me to say,

let's get ready to,
I wasn't able to.

I think I really want to
improve on becoming stronger.

Being confident in myself.

I'm usually not that
confident in myself.

- If you've identified
it as a struggle,

what's you process to
minimize it as something

to hold you back
or to overcome it.

- Wait, why does a ninth
grade physics teacher

care about how confident
his freshman student is?

Qualities like confidence
fall under the umbrella

of what these new
educators like to call,

soft skills.

These soft skills can also
include critical thinking,

the ability to collaborate,
the ability to learn

from criticism,
to persevere through trials,

time management skills,
work ethic, and even

the ability to work on your own.

- The scary thing about
project-based learning

is, again,
kind of turning over the classroom,

not being teacher-centered
but being student-centered.

- And the room with
have this chaotic feel

where I think,
some people who are used to traditional

environments of you
know, child sitting

at a desk,
filling out a worksheet,

it terrifies them because
there's lots of movement

and lots of noise and
lots of activities.

- So the project we're
doing this semester

is Toga Night,
which is focused on 5th century Athens.

So the kids learned a lot
about 5th century Athens

and the ancient Greeks.

But they learned about a
lot of other things, too.

Because you could teach
thematically so we

teach about leadership,
foreign policy,

human rights,
which is when you're teaching

Ancient Greece,
you can teach that.

- While studying
5th century Athens,

these students
participated in a lot

of Socratic Seminars,
class discussions.

- It's trying to imply
like, the shadow

sort of represents
knowledge, are we still

going for that?

- They believed two
different things.

This guys like,
I believe that, you know,

there's another world
with way cooler stuff

than these shadows.

- That's also after
you gain knowledge.

So it has to, sorry,
so it has to do with the knowledge.

- A little bit.

- Cause you gain
knowledge from going

to the outside world and
then you come back in

and your beliefs change.

- They studied innovations
like democracy.

They had philosophical
discussions on human rights.

There were a number of
papers they each had to write

individually, in other
words, a lot of traditional

schoolwork.

Where the other freshman
class was studying

the rise and fall of
civilizations and they were going

to create something with
gears, these freshman

were to take all of their
newly acquired knowledge

about 5th century Athens
and they were going

to produce a play based
on Euripides Trojan women.

Because girls were not allowed
to act in ancient Greece,

there'd be two plays.

One done by the boys as
it would've been done

in Euripides time and
an all girls production,

but with a twist.

They were going to take
this ancient Greek play

and on their own,
adapt it to modern day Pakistan.

- Where is she now?

- The men are taking
her to a prison,

but she keeps complaining
about a broken leg.

- I don't care, broken or
not, I want her now.

- Yes, sir,
I'll have her brought to you.

- When Samantha first got
here, it was clear

to us that she was one of
the most engaged students

we'd ever met,
but she's so shy and reserved

and quiet, and meek.

So when it came
time to pick the,

when it came time to pick
the director of the play,

Mr. Aguirre puts a call
out, he's like,

whoever is interested can
come and meet with me.

When she was one of the
students, I think we both felt

that this could be huge for her.

- So then Miss Sienna
suggested wrapping it

around the hat so it'll
have that shape but you

can just take it on and
off without having to

literally wrap around them.

- It's your decision.

- Okay.
- Okay.

- I can ask if we can try that.

- Unless it looks
absolutely awful.

- Well, yeah.

- You guys go with it, okay.

It's your decision.

- Yes.

- How can you ask
kids to make decisions

if you never ask them
to make decisions?

How can you go
through high school

never having to make a decision,

just doing, sitting in rows
and, you know,

doing that death
march to the textbook

and just regurgitating?

And then suddenly
when you go on to life

it's like, oh,
we want you to make decisions.

Well, you never asked me
to make a decision before,

I don't know how to do that.

- Oh, but they can't put
the spotlight right there.

- Let's try out a bunch
of different stuff, okay?

- If it's right
there, because then...

I don't know.

- I kind of don't like

the lights up too high.

- I do, it looks better.

- Lighting's here.

Christine, you got sound duty?

- Yes.

- Okay.

Don't put all the work on them.

They're only four people,
guys, they're only

four people and they
can't do everything

and I know that you can
do a lot by yourselves.

So, actresses can put on
their own costumes too, okay?

- See the angle of the
light, how it's kind

of pointing up above you?

- What do kids learn by
just doing this play?

- So, I think the disconnect,
and there are some

parents, in fact, the mother of
our, of the director

of the female play has
concerns about this.

I've talked to her
about it before,

that, where's the content?

Where's the proof that they're
learning, you know,

x, y, and z.

- No tests, no textbooks,
no report cards.

Teachers don't stand
in front of the class.

They don't have to
sit down all day.

And listen to the teachers.

It's scary.

The other day I asked
her, it's like,

when are you going to learn
geography and history?

And where's Croatia
and what's the capitol?

How are you going to
memorize all that?

- What I'm seeing now
that Tess really doesn't

have as much homework
and as a mom,

you know,
her first year in a charter school,

I have some anxiety about it.

I'm worried about making
sure she's prepared

for SAT's or the ACT's.

- Sorry,
we're worried a little bit

because he's doing these
projects and helping

each other, you know,
helping classmates.

- Mm-hmm.

- Even understanding
things more deeply

like she did the other
day, which as a human being

I was thrilled with
but there's still,

at the back of my
head, is this going

to prepare her for th tests?

- I went to Berkeley.

I got my math degree
from Berkeley.

I did probably the most
traditional process, right?

I had to bust my butt
and go through the hoops

and then I went to
banking, I worked for

an asset management
firm and I felt like

I was not truly prepared
to work in a team

environment,
to take on tasks that were

very arbitrary and open-ended.

I didn't know how to
ask the necessarily

the best questions.

And I think that there
was a lot of things

that I just didn't learn
in college that I think

these kids are
actually learning now.

- You knew all of
the math in order

to take those tests
and get into Berkeley.

- Yeah.

- And then continue
in math at Berkley

and so I'm thinking,
even though you're not learning

the skills, the social
skills, the team working

skills that you learned once
you got to the workplace,

part of me in the back
of my head is saying

well, you would have never
made it to that workplace

if you didn't jump through
the hoops to get there.

Because if you never
learned the math curriculum

and if you didn't do well
in getting to that school,

you wouldn't have had that.

- Sure.

- And I'm still on
the fence because I

totally agree with
what you're saying

about, and I have to
walk myself through

this whole, do I want him
to do well on the SAT, why?

To get into college.

Well, why?

You know, and kind of,
I've had to really reexamine

all of those things.

- Yeah.

- And why would I want the
things that I want for him.

You know, cause it's not
like I'm trying to get

him into an Ivy League school
or something like that.

I'm really not.

I want him to be happy.

- Mm-hmm.

- But, I also want him to
not have any doors closed.

- This is scary for parents.

How will this new type
of education get kids

into college?

Most of us believe that
school for the most part

is less than useful in
every day life but it's part

of a game we've
all agreed to play.

Play the game right and you end
up, presumably,

in the best colleges.

And then you get the best jobs.

And for 100 years,
this is actually more or less

been true.

So while turning students
into better collaborators

or having them think more
critically might seem

like a great idea,
won't changing a student's approach

to education this radically,
inhibit their ability

to get into a good college?

And do well in that
college once they're there?

- There's definitely a
concern I think about

the loss of content.

There's no doubt that
we take a lot of time,

our kids go on internships.

They work with adults.

They do a lot of
depth in their work

and they definitely miss
some of the breadth.

There's no doubt about that.

- I think we're
going great things.

I think we're doing a
project that is helpful

for them as people,
but I'm only covering,

let's say, 40% of the
content, 60% of the content.

- For most people,
the school day

is judged by how much
their kid has learned.

In fact, every time
policy makers have paused

in a meaningful way
to assess education

in this country,
they've always chosen the idea

that kids should learn
more, not less.

Which, on its
surface, makes sense,

that's what school is, right?

To learn stuff.

But consider AP U.S. history.

This class covers over 520
years and it's a 32 week

sprint from Columbus
to the present day.

To get through the curriculum,
a student can only spend

three class periods
covering, say, the Civil War.

Or World War II.

And less than a class
period on The Constitution.

AP teachers often don't
even take questions

from students during class
because there simply isn't time.

Not if you want any
hope of getting through

the curriculum before
the semester ends.

- We're a nation
obsessed with numbers.

People that did the
political chain to have any

responsibility for
education want nothing more

than to say we improved
standardized test performance

by seven percent the past
year, isn't everything working?

But when you look at
how that ripples down

to the classroom, if your focus,
if your measure of success

is slight improvements
on standardized tests

on vocabulary and esoteric
math, you are going

to say, why are we teaching art?

Why are we teaching
scientific inquiry?

Why are we encouraging
kids to ask questions?

Why are we dealing with
inquisitive curious kids

in our class, let's drill.

Let's get that result
that we can then put

in the paper and say we're
succeeding in education.

- Watching my kids sit
there and sit there

and learn math and learn
science and learn English

and roll their eyes
and they're just,

I mean just the other
day I had a student say

I need to come in and
get some help on this

but I don't want to do it
until close to the test.

Because I want to make
sure it's fresh on my brain

for when I take the test.

And I'm thinking,
how problematic is that,

that that's what the goal is?

The goal is to pass the test.

- This is Vince.

A math teacher from Douglas
County, Colorado

who was worried that
the math he was spending

his semester teaching
was disposable.

As a result he made some
fairly bold changes.

He even went to High
Tech High for some ideas.

All in hopes of creating
a curriculum which focused

on math problems that were
more relevant to a students

life and less relevant to
the state standardized tests.

But he met some resistance.

And curiously,
it came from his highest achieving

math students.

- But I mean like,
colleges, in the long run

they don't,
they look at your grades

and like,
what you got in the class.

They don't say, oh, no,
she had an understanding

just because of one little part.

They see the letter grade.

And that's what really matters.

- Do you want Jim and
Vince to train you guys

to ace tests or would
you rather Jim and Vince

train you to be able to kind
of apply stuff like this

in your daily life,
for your job later?

- For me, it's--

- I want to ace the
test, go to college.

That's how I get a job.

Like, I feel like this
stuff, in college

you focus on what you
want to do with your life

and like in the real
world and so I feel like

that's when you
should focus on that.

Because not everyone's
not going to go off

and do math, so, I feel
like, I would rather

ace the test.

That's just a personal
opinion of mine.

- I agree with that.

- I think in high school
you should be learning

how to ace the test and
if you want to pursue

more mathematical things
in college then they can

teach you how to do
real life things.

If you want to learn
that in college,

but in high school,
you should be taught how to ace

the tests so you
can get into college

in the first place.

In my opinion.

- What if,
that's so fascinating.

I thought the question was
just, a no brainer.

So for you all to
say the other answer.

Do you want to do well in life

or do you want to
get into college?

We want to get into college.

- Increasingly in all
schools in America today,

even our very best
public and independent

schools,
I see one curriculum and only one,

It's test prep.

What does that mean?

Kids are spending an inordinate
amount of classroom time

preparing for predominantly
multiple choice

factual recall tests,
the results of which

tell us absolutely nothing about
work, learning,

or citizenship readiness
in the 21st century.

- If there's a
teacher who spends

all semester long
prepping their kids

to do well on a test,
is that such a bad thing?

Perhaps it is, or it isn't.

Depending on the
quality of the test.

Take for instance, the SAT.

- The SAT is supposed to
test critical thinking

and reasoning,
at least that's how they present it.

But the way that you
succeed on this test

is knowing the ways in which
they've standardized it.

They've made it predictable,
and you have to then behave

in a predictable manner.

And the problem that I run
into, specifically

with more intelligent
students is they want to get

creative, you know,
they want to answer a question,

they really want to dig
into it and think about

all the possible ways that
you can approach that.

For doing well on this test,
you kind of have to shut

that entire process down.

You have to divert away
from that and you just

have to think, you
know, a really binary,

sort of black and white sense.

The test is written to
be scored by a computer

and I think as a student,
I almost encourage them

to think like a computer.

- But what's worse is that
when kids learn this way,

they aren't even able to
retain what they've learned.

Consider a study done by
Lawrenceville Academy,

one of the most exclusive
boarding schools in the U.S.

They asked returning students
to retake their Science finals

just three months after having
completing their courses.

Even though faculty eliminated
all low level details

from the final,
the average grade on these exams

fell from a B plus to
an F across two years

and several courses,
not one student still had command

of all major concepts
they presumably mastered

just three months earlier.

- One of the things we
know from cognitive science

research is that inert
knowledge that is things

that you memorize,
sit back and never use,

does not stick.

And about 90% of the things
that you might take in,

memorize, use on a test and
never use again disappear,

you don't have those
usable in your brain later.

- If I were to show you
a picture of students

taking a test,
you'd recognize it right away.

The interesting
question is this.

Have you ever encountered
in your professional life

frustration that is similar
to the one in the test?

I think in real life,
you have access to any information

that you want.

In real life,
you can work with other people,

not only you can work,
you probably have to work

with other people,
otherwise, you can't solve

the problems you need to solve.

So why is it that we're
assessing students

and trying to predict
students future

success in the workplace
by putting them

in an environment,
in a situation that they will

never, never,
ever face in their future careers.

- The problem for us and
what we see at Google

is that some of the people
that do well on those things

actually,
you don't want to work with

because they're
not great on teams,

they're not collaborative,
and the best

and smartest people
actually aren't the ones

who always get the best grades.

- When we hire at Khan
Academy, you know

we're trying to hire
software engineers

and people who can
help with content

and help us do
research and these are

the types of jobs that are,
these are the growth jobs

of the 21st century.

A highly creative job and
we ask ourselves questions

like, what are their logical
and critical thinking skills?

What's their ability
to communicate?

How curious is that person?

How good is that
person at giving

and receiving feedback?

How empathetic and
self-aware are these people?

And when we look at a
resume, even from a fancy

University,
from Harvard or Stanford or, you know

we don't know,
3.9 GPA tells us very little about them.

It just tells us that they did
well on a series of courses.

- We do something to kids
in our educational system

where, you know,
a child is born knowing nothing

and all they want to do is
learn, right?

Every experience in the
universe is new to you,

right, and you're soaking
this in and you're

a learning machine and
we grind it out of them

in our educational
system and we're taught

not to learn.

We're taught to memorize.

We're taught to be very
good at figuring out

what it is that a teacher
or a manager wants us to do

and then deliver what that
teacher or manager wants.

- It seems like from
what you're saying,

nothing could be
worse for your future

in this economy than
learning that skill.

- Or for your soul.

- Some might argue,
look, developing creative

problem-solving
skills, this is great

for the small
percentage of people

that will grow up
and manage or run

their own company one day.

But, the vast majority of
people, they're still

going to need some of
these rudimentary skills

that our traditional
schools are really good

at developing.

Well, since Kasparov
was beaten in chess,

since Ken Jennings was
beaten in Jeopardy,

actually since the
invention of the microchip

and a guy named
Gordon Moore predicted

that computers will
double their ability

every two years,
we've seen first auto workers

replaced on the assembly
line, then workers

in warehouses,
now we're seeing lawyers

being replaced.

People who write jobs
reports, very soon,

people who drive for a
living, they're going to

have to look for something
else to do and what

some are arguing is that any job

that doesn't require
critical thinking

or advanced communication
skills or some form

of human creativity,
those jobs, they're

all going to be gone.

And they're going to
be gone a lot faster

that we thought.

- We talk a lot about
the average worker.

We talk about the median
worker and the median is

a statistical concept.

It's just that person right
at the 50th percentile,

right in the middle of a pack.

They are customer service rep,
they are a troubleshooter,

they're a clerk of some kind.

Maybe they're a sales associate.

They're doing relatively
low-level white collar work.

That's pretty clearly the
stuff that is being automated

most quickly these days.

In other words,
understand human speech,

produce human speech,
write clean prose,

translate among languages,
recognize patterns

in a visual field,
technology could never

ever do any of
those things before.

And really just in
the blink of an eye,

somebody can do those things,
can do them quite well

and the reason that
that's a challenge

is that that's right where
the average worker has been.

That's right where
we've built up a large,

stable, prosperous middle-class.

And that middle-class
is pretty clearly

under threat right now.

- If this is true,
parents are likely being asked

to make a bet.

One side of the bet,
continue down the traditional path.

It's worked for the
better part of a century.

Maybe we can make some
small modifications to it,

test it more,
maybe lengthen out the school day,

shorten the summer,
in other words,

keep it the same,
just make it harder.

The other side of the
bet is to completely

reimagine school.

Truthfully there's
no long-term study

that proves this form
of learning will work

any better than the
current educational model.

And this can be nerve-racking.

Especially when you're a
parent who's considering

this type of school
for your own kid.

- There you go.

- - You sit right there.

- You have got to
sit in the back,

that is the safest
place in the car.

- I get the sense that
you are fairly protective

of your daughter.

- Just a little bit.

Not too much.

Just as long as she
stays with me forever,

she can maybe get
married when she's 80,

but before that she
stays with Mama.

- Describe some of the anxieties

that you had about the school.

What were the
particular anxieties?

What were things that
you were nervous about?

- That she was not
going to have books.

No textbooks.

That, and that she
wasn't going to have

the traditional subjects.

I wanted to see
grammar, literature,

math, one hour each.

And now this is like
blocks of things

where everything,
all the subjects

are running together
where she's learning

everything without borders
between one subject

and another.

- So why did you come here?

- Somethings going
on, I mean I do like

grammar, history,
and geography and all that

but there's something going
on where all my friends

kids, they're graduating
as architects,

or engineers or this
or that and they're

in their 30s and they're
working for mom and dad.

After going to
Francis Parker and,

you know, Cornell and
it's, I see it happening

and it scares me.

- Even if you're inclined to bet

on this new type of education,
it still seems risky.

For one thing,
how do you assess someone's ability

to collaborate or to persevere?

In other words,
how do you test for it?

- There are several of
them but one of them

is just publicly
exhibiting work.

So I think that anyone
should come here

to the exhibition room
and judge for themselves.

- It's a big moment
because the students

are going to present
their work to the world

and it's going to
be high-quality

or in some cases it is and
in some cases it's not.

It's still an
accountability strategy.

It's still a pushing strategy.

But it's just, what do you
want to be held accountable to?

Test scores?

Or kids producing
high-quality work?

- So, for that first
stanza about the Taliban

and the helicopters,
I want you to have no burka.

- Okay.

- So while, like after your
scene, when you put

the dress on,
don't put the burka on.

And they will know that.

I want you to leave
your burka off.

I want you to keep
your bun and I want you

to keep your bun so that
you're two wandering across.

- Wait, but who changed this?

- Uhh, Tom.

- No, it's 'cause, like, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Well, no.

- No.

- Saying that,
you know I'm going to give you a grade

at the end of this term on
your final exam is one thing,

saying your parents,
all your friends' parents,

and a bunch of people
you don't know are gonna

be here to see the work
you did on this date.

And I think that
is a very natural

piece of motivation
for students.

I also think it creates
a, an aspect

of an authenticity
because we are creating

something for an audience.

- I made it point one inches
instead of point five,

cause it allows you
to have more teeth

on a smaller gear and
since we have a lot

of gears, it allows us to
do more in a smaller space.

And it's not even done yet.

Which is a bad thing.

But it will be done.

- I think project-based
learning means you're

actually making and doing
things and finishing

something,
finishing is so important.

- Because projects
are very frustrating.

You know, you don't cover
as much content ground

as you would in textbook
learning and at the same time,

it's hard because when
you're making something,

you don't get the immediate
rewards that you do

when you're just memorizing
something and getting

an A on the test every week.

- So now it's starting
to get a little harder

but it still runs pretty
smooth, right?

- Yeah.

Now imagine that without
this underneath it,

I mean I think it just
makes the whole thing

move easier.

- I remember the
conversation when I,

he first started
doing a lot of this

where, you know, Brian,

there's what most
people are doing,

what you're talking about,

and then there's really
hard and then you're

somewhere past that.

- How is that hammer?

- It will work.

As long as it gets the job done.

- Working with groups I
think is the hardest part

for kids because they have
to rely on other people

in order to get things done.

It's not just a one
person show where one kid

can do everything that
they're supposed to do.

And so, I've seen kids
really get into some intense

arguments around
exhibition time.

- No, it's already done.

Okay, it's done, it's done.

Come on, okay, Jose, it works.

- My group leader, Brian,
he procrastinates a lot

and like wants this
big thing done but yet

he still keeps
adding more to it.

He keeps adding more
pieces to what was going

to be simple that he makes into a
big, difficult thing.

- That's in red,
that's hard to see.

- Why do they make
the teeth so small?

- Think it's going to
be ready by tomorrow?

- Yeah.

- Nervous?

- Yeah, just a little bit.

I want it to work, I
want, 'cause we still

have quite a ways to go
and we only have a day.

- Just think what
would happen if,

if the Taliban found out.

The consequences,
the retaliation.

It would be unspeakable.

I do not want that for Aisha.

- This is not a
point in the play

where we have to be doing this.

- It's not safe.

- No, we're starting
from the beginning

of the scene.

Guys, please, it's tomorrow.

I'm freaking out,
we have to get this.

- I think that the
best is brought out

in all of us in large
part because we make

the work public.

And we all look at it.

So, we can tell good
stories about the work

we're trying to do
but then ultimately

tomorrow night we're
going to look at the work

and some of it's
going to be great

and some is going
to be not so great.

- It's more like an
exhibition of what

they've learned to do,
like to collaborate.

There's a lot of blood,
sweat, and tears.

It's not, you can't,
to get these kids to collaborate

and work together,
because it does require

everybody to do it.

- The exhibition is on
them, it's their exhibition.

It's up to them to prove
what they've learned,

what they've been doing,
to be able to articulate

that to various audiences,
so it's their exhibition,

so they feel a lot of
pressure and responsibility

on themselves to
make it look right.

- It's the evidence of
what you've been doing,

I mean, no matter how hard you
try, people come in

and, you know,
the kids are in an environment

the teacher creates.

Mike and I are the
only ones that create

that environment,
we have complete control

over it.

I mean, they spend five
hours a day every day

for a school year,
that's a long time.

And whatever culture
is in the class

is evident whether you
want it to be or not

in exhibition.

- For most of you,
this is probably the biggest

project that you've
ever exhibited,

a lot of you,
it's the first project

that you've ever really
had a public exhibition of.

- The most thing to
me is how crazy it is

to me and how much,
in terms of learning from him,

how crazy it is to turn
everything over to you guys

and let you run it
all, and I think

what we're striving
for for all of you

is that you become independent

in getting tasks completed,
because if you can do

that then you can
do anything in life.

- This is when you
get to show off,

it should be the moment
where you've been

working so hard and spending
so many extra hours,

putting so much effort
in that you're excited

to show people what you've done.

Cool,
we're gonna be here if you need

to go, we understand,
but we're gonna

keep working for a few hours.

Break.

- I think that we want
students doing work

for a real audience,
and that totally

changes the entire dynamic.

If the assignment
is, you get it back

and you crumple
it up and throw it

in the trash can,
that's kind of one

student experience,
and if the assignment

is to produce
something that you're

going to present
to professionals

in the field,
that's completely changing

the whole dynamic.

- And when you're
doing that with kids,

they're not saying to you,
why am I learning this?

They know why
they're learning it,

because it's not gonna fit,

it's not gonna work.

- I'm nervous.

I mean, it looked way
better than before lunch,

so I think it's gonna be good,

I just think we need
to practice more.

- These girls deserve
to go to school,

it's only right.

- Just hit right here?

- Yeah, but more arm
movement, I want, yahh.

Yeah, better, not like, hello,

you know, but like, boom.

- Does that look real?

- That looked pretty real.

- I need to print out all
these different boards,

and I need to make
them out of acrylic,

and I need to make this
look nice with words,

and it's something,
I keep realizing

I need to do all
these other things,

and it's just this
weight that never

really goes away
and keeps on getting

bigger and bigger
and weighing more,

but I really do
want to finish it,

and I can't wait for that
moment when it does work

and I'm completely done with it,

and it just, like, all leaves.

It will be one of the
greatest moments of my life.

I'm really interested
in how it works,

I'm interested in how it's made,

I'm interested in everything
that has to do with it,

and I really don't want
to let people down,

and I really just want to work on
it, finish it,

and be proud of it.

Yeah.

- You're gonna do it
just like you've been

doing it all of rehearsal,

you've done it in front
of the entire class,

you've done it in front
of the entire other class.

These are just
parents, parents won't

say anything mean.

- Smiling, you can't even tell.

- Rodrigo just
finished his scene,

so we're getting close.

- yes.

- Okay.

- Okay, stand up,
Elena, close your eyes.

Ready?

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Okay.

- I think she views
herself differently now

than at the
beginning of the year

when she saw herself as somebody

who couldn't connect
and make friends.

And now I think she
knows that she can,

but that she can
also lead people,

and I think it's been a
powerful experience for her.

- When we get out
there, you're gonna do

an awesome, completely best job

you've ever done in the world.

It doesn't matter if
it's the best acting

job ever done in the world,

it's the best acting
job you've ever done

in the world.

Okay?

And then you're
gonna get offstage,

everyone's gonna be
clapping, they're gonna

be cheering,
you're gonna go up to your mom,

she's gonna be so proud,

and your dad is gonna be
like, oh my gosh,

I didn't know you
had that in you.

- These girls deserve
to go to school,

it's only right.

- You do not understand
what is right,

we're trying to create
a secure environment

where the purity of the women

may once again be sacred.

- If the Taliban found out,

the consequences,
the retaliation ,

it would be unthinkable.

I do not want that for Aisha.

- I think, I think that
in a lot teacher's minds,

we have this idea
of what we want

the thing to look
like at the end,

like the end product,
but that's our idea,

that's not their idea.

Let them be creative,
get rid of your ideas,

what you think it
should look like,

let them produce what
they want to produce.

- Where is she?

Where is she, where is Malala?

I said, where is she,
if you don't tell me,

I will kill all of you.

- She's over here,
this girl right here,

it's Malala.

- No, no, it's not
me, I swear, please.

- Malala has done
the courageous act

of shaming the
outrageous actions

of the Taliban with
the eyes of the world.

The Taliban has
retaliated against her

in this horrible, violent way.

But against all their actions,

she had survived.

When they tried to silence her,

they did exactly the opposite,

and now the world
knows her name.

Malala has demonstrated
that in order

to see real change,
you must stand up

for what you believe in.

- It's completely student
run, we did it

from start to finish.

To me, this is what it's about.

You realize you're
capable of things

you weren't capable of before.

That one is really
hard to get to go, so.

It's already chipping too,

but I think it's gonna--

- Okay, I see it, yeah.

- Okay.

- You, set up everything here,

and then we'll just
have the sprockets

on this board and the
top thing on this board.

- Wait,
these don't have feelers.

No, no, don't flip
it, don't flip it.

We've got a surprise picked out.

- That one's not ready.
That one's not ready at all.

- Okay,
start putting the sprockets,

start putting the
sprockets, okay?

- Where?

- On there.

- Just on these?

- No. Dude-

- We don't have time for these.

- We got held back some.

- Hold on, let's spin it.

I want to see if this will...

- There's still an exercise,

but this is basically
how it turned out.

- Oh, wow.

- Yeah, because we researched
the Mayan civilization

and Greek and Roman.

- So, did you have to scan that

and put it on
illustrator to get on-

- Yeah.

- That is really cool.

- The things I think
in life that give us

some of the greatest
satisfaction

and for children too,
is making something

that wasn't there before.

We all derive
fantastic satisfaction,

it can be a song,
it can be a garden,

but making something.

When kids have that
feeling, it's transformative

for them,
"I made this and everyone's coming

to look at it."

And you have that
feeling that we all have

like, how did they do that?

- This is like,
I've seen the projects

of High Tech High
for like seven years,

and this is, this is up there.

- It's all primed
based on their original

proposal,
and these images every three turns,

this hole lines up
with those images

and it's all tied
directly to the theory

of why civilizations
rise and fall.

Bam!

- And it's important
for the teachers,

because it's such
an affirming thing

to see the work and
the performances

of the students.

- They came up with all
the drawings and engravings

that you see,
they push the buttons

and cut the stuff out.

Pretty cool, huh?

- I mean, that was
basically my first full year

teaching my own class.

I had a very noticeable
shift in kind of like

my faith in positive outcomes.

I don't know,
I just saw so many transitions,

so many students that
started as uninvolved

or socially impaired,
or really academically

challenged that came
out as different people,

not perfect,
but better than they came in.

And just seeing
that, it makes me,

like, it convinces me I
have value in my role.

That makes me feel
like, like I matter

in some way.

- Where,
where are the other caps.

Okay, no,
where are the other caps?

- He was a little
bit disappointed

because he was
certain that he would

have been able to
finish, but he realized

a little piece didn't work,

and the more he
was working on it,

the more he realized that
he had to redo the pieces,

and that's how he
was disappointed.

- We all learn by
making mistakes.

The whole thing about
this is doing it better

the next time,
and that's really okay

to say that,
the next time, you're

gonna do it better,

and you're gonna do
it by making mistakes

and learning through doing.

- So, Brian was one
of a few who despite

their efforts did
not have something

to show on exhibition night.

And while we had this big wheel

with a whole bunch
of mechanisms on it

functioning,
theirs was not a part of it,

and so,
the question that they naturally

asked themselves is, like,

why did that happen,
and some kids, this is

a emotional event,
and for Brian,

I think this was
a real self-check

where he kind of,
it gave him a chance

to think critically
about his actions,

that we never would
have been able

to break through by pushing.

I never would have gotten
there just by saying,

Brian,
these are some characteristics

I need you to have.

But by seeing his
efforts not work,

I think that opened him
up a little bit more

to commentary on what
might be improved.

- I don't know where
exactly things happened,

but I think I have an
idea of what I'm gonna do,

but I don't actually do
it until last minute.

- Could you talk
a little bit about

planning, the process,
and the presentation

and what seems to
be a little bit

of a pattern of
things getting lost

somewhere between
those three P's,

planning, process, presentation.

- I was in charge
of the mechanism,

it's still not done,
and I might have

hurt my group
members a little bit

because I didn't really
listen to their ideas.

- One of the things that
is special about you

is that you're a
visionary person,

and so we do not want to
hammer that out of you,

that is not our goal,
we don't want you

to stop being Brian.

- If we lecture
them, maybe they can

perform on an exam,
they're gonna forget it,

I think these soft skills
that they're learning,

teams of collaboration,
the teamwork,

you know,
how to show up and produce,

I think that's gonna
stay with them.

They're not gonna
forget this stuff.

I'm like, astonished in a way

about something, your voice,

Because all first
semester, it was sometimes

really difficult
to even hear you.

Can you talk a little
bit, reflect a little bit

about the development
of your voice this year?

- My mom uses my
voice as an example,

but when I meet new
people, my voice

tends to be really,
really high pitched

and really annoying,
I'm just like,

hi, guys,
and you can barely hear me,

and that's just
because I'm so shy,

and my little voice
comes out when I start

acting like that,
when I start trying to just

be polite and do
things that are right

so that people like me.

- Is it possible to be confident

and behave in a way where
people will like you

and enjoy being around you?

- Yes, but in order to do that,

you have to be
confident with yourself.

And this is one of
the most absolute

important things that I
think I learned this year.

It's good to make
other people smile,

it's good to smile yourself,

but it's also good to
have new experiences,

it's also good to
learn, to go through

struggles so that you come
out knowing something new.

- I think you'd agree,

that girl has traveled
a pretty great distance

over this last school year.

- She's not the only one.

This is why I believe
in what we do here,

because all of them
have had a tremendous

amount of growth.

I told them this
morning, I said,

you guys remember
what you were like

when you walked
in here in August

on the first day
and how you are now?

They've all experienced,
they've experienced

growth as a class, as a group,

but also a lot of
individual growth.

- It's a school full of
nerds, okay.

How am I gonna fit in now, like,

I'm not smart like
that, I'm not nerdy,

but I came here and I found out

I'm a little more nerdy
than I thought I was.

- It really helped
me find my strength,

which I now feel is writing,

and it made me
feel like an author

and an artist in a way.

- I've always been
a good follower

and I thought I was such
a good follower until

this year when I was
told I was a good leader.

I was taken aback,
I didn't believe it,

I thought,
who could I ever lead,

and who would ever
want to follow me,

but then I realized
I have led myself

to become so much
more of a stronger

and intelligent
person this year,

and that the people
who follow me

follow my examples.

- The current systems
of education fails

to recognize that all
students are people,

that they have feelings,
they have motivations,

they have aspirations,
they have lives

and biographies
and circumstances,

and as soon as you
miss that point,

as soon as you start
talking about students

as data points,
you're in big trouble,

and the trouble's evident.

You've got hundreds
of thousands of people

going to college every
year, and when they leave,

they are not in anything
like the situation

that college graduates
used to be in.

It used to be the case,
when I was at college,

that if you had
a college degree,

it was pretty much a
guarantee of a job,

pretty much, it's not now.

- As we go from an
industrial economy

to an information
economy, our most valuable

part of capital in the
economy is no longer

going to be industrial capital,

it's going to be human capital.

That's going to
define which nations

succeed, that's going
to define which nations

have a broad and
rich middle class,

that's going to
define which nations

have, are innovating,
which nations

are strong militarily,
It's all going to be

based on how
innovative and creative

and entrepreneurial
its people are,

how much ownership they have,

how much curiosity
they've been able

to retain through their life.

- So, I really think we
need to put in place,

educational environments
that help the kids

understand that the world
is an interesting place,

and their job is to go understand
it, probe it,

change it, and poke at it.

Those are still
skills I haven't seen

computers display.

- Right now, we're attempting

to educate a generation of kids

who will work in
jobs that have not

been invented yet.

They'll be called
on to solve problems

in a world so complex,
we can't even imagine it.

How do you design
a school system

that prepares kids for that?

While there's no long
term study to prove

that this type of
learning will provide

better results than
our current schools,

there are some statistics
that are interesting.

For instance,
in spite of the fact

that teachers don't
waste one minute

teaching to the state tests,

High Tech High
curiously still performs

above the state average.

A more surprising
statistic, look at how many

kids they get into college.

But that's just college,
and as we've discussed,

that's not a
guarantee of anything.

To really know whether a
school like High Tech High

works, we'll have to wait
another 10 to 15 years.

While the early
returns are promising,

High Tech High is just too new,

the sample size too
small to know if it

will truly prepare kids
for the 21st century.

And that makes
educators, politicians,

and especially parents,
hesitant to try

this new way of teaching.

- For a parent, what I would say

is, there is a chance
that they will come out

without all of the
extremely tangible

skills and content
that they would get

at a normal high school,
that is a definite

possibility,
they might know a few less

equations,
they might not have gotten

quite as deep into calculus,

those things might
happen, but if we're going

to believe that the
content knowledge

we're trying to impart on them

in a traditional school
is not being retained,

then I would argue,
what is it again

that they're missing?

Because in that
environment, they're leaving

with a fraction of
some of the content

they could have had or
learned at one point.

Here, they're gonna
leave with an extreme

depth of some content
and a whole bunch

of other soft skills,
they're gonna have

grit, they're gonna
be able to persevere

through difficulty,
they're good at

communicating with
adults and their peers,

they're collaborative,
they have empathy,

all these things
that are not things

that disappear your junior
year of high school.

And so, when parents ask that,

and they do ask
that all the time,

it's really kind of
a what do you want

out of your student,
who do you want them to be?

- Over 100 years ago,

the United States
went from one room

school houses to the
robust industrial model

we have now.

It was a transformation
that was nothing short

of miraculous.

Perhaps it's time for
another transformation.

Over the past two
years, we've filmed

at schools all over the country.

We visited private schools,

charter schools,
even traditional public schools

and colleges.
At each of them, we saw

talented women and men
at all grade levels

taking bold steps to
depart from the century

old educational model.

Whether they were combining
multiple disciplines,

banning AP's, giving teachers

greater autonomy,
focusing on depth

of learning,
offering real world internships,

having kids collaborate
on projects,

the common thread
between all these schools

is that the students appeared

to be working on things
with a sense of purpose.

- This is your best friend.

Believe it or not,
as heavy as it is,

well, best friends usually
got a little weight

on them, so.

But what's nice
about this book is,

you can look things
up if you're not sure.

- As I consider the
kind of education

I want for my own
daughter, how do I predict

what will give her the best
shot at future happiness,

at being successful,
whatever that means.

Even High Tech High
would be the first to say

that their particular
approach isn't

for every student.

Of the schools we visited,
no two were alike,

and maybe that's the point.

Education,
real education is messy,

and any attempt
to standardize it

through federal or
state governments,

or bureaucratic
committees will lead

to a system that
ignores this one

irrefutable fact.

- Education is a
complex human system.

It's about people.

And people are
natural creatures,

we're organic creatures.

You know, we grow,
and we evolve, and we change,

and if you have an
industrial metaphor

in your head,
then you're led into this sort of

language that we now use
about standardization,

and the thing is,
it's much more like gardening

than engineering.

If you're a gardener,
you don't make it grow,

the plant grows itself.

You don't attach the
leaves and paint the petals

and screw in the roots,
the thing grows itself

if you create the
right conditions.

- It's so tempting
to just get in there

and fix it,
just to watch them make

the mistake after mistake,
it's hard sometimes.

- Human resources are
like the world's natural

resources,
they're buried beneath the surface.

If we find things that energize,

those things we love to
do, you can't

keep us down.

- How are you not
ecstatic right now?

- Oh my god.

Oh my god.

That's awesome.

- Walk over to the thing here.

Let's do a dry fit.

Don't let go,
it's all gonna disintegrate.

- You got it?

- Yeah.

- Oh my god, okay.