The tomorrow of education.

This month, we hired a couple of Assistant Producers in our NY studio.   Both interviewed well, with fairly impressive degrees, so we were pleased to offer them contracts.   After less than two weeks, we had to fire both of them due to jaw-droppingly unprofessional behaviour: one decided that 'work' was a philosophically subjective term that he could, and should, define himself; the other decided she was a creative expert at 22 years old, and proceeded to inform us of how we need to run the company.  This is, supposedly, during a recession.

In a separate observation, I recently read that over the last 30 years, the cost of a college degree in America has risen by over 500% compared to inflation.  The average college education in America will cost $80,000 over four years, but frankly, that's including a lot of colleges where the degree is as valuable as used toilet paper.  For any decent college, you're looking at $40k a year, once you factor in room and board, etc.  Great Britain is heading the same the way.  And unlike primary and secondary school fees, there are very few degrees that will actually benefit a student financially.

It's an old observation, but universities don't produce great workers.  Personally, I'm a college dropout, get to run a pretty decent little business, and I don't see how my two and a half years at a pretty decent university helped me any more than a 3-month spring break would've done.  Obviously, there are plenty of great workers with degrees, but I think they would have been great workers without the degree.  College seems to blunt work ethic, instead of sharpening it.  Unless you're going to be a surgeon or a lawyer (which of course requires 4 more years of education, so potentially $400,000 in various expenses), I don't see the value.

I'm so skeptical about college I've told my children that when they turn eighteen they'll have a choice.  They can get a job (I still don't know why my generation was discouraged from this).  They can start a business (with me as the seed investor).  Or, they can go to college... provided they have a real passion for their intended major, get straight A's, and can make a business case for it, too - I certainly won't be funding any 'English Literature' or 'Media Studies' degrees.

That might seem draconian, but I'm not the only one that sees the need for change. There is a revolution taking place in education, with the emphasis on providing more for less.  Technology could change education the way it's changed so many other things in our lives.

I've recently watched several clips which suggest the tomorrow of education could, and should, be very different from today.  This little blog is meant to introduce those clips.

The first is about the Khan Academy, and if you have a child who is between 8 and 18, and if you aren't using the Khan Academy website to help them with their homework, you need to watch this clip immediately. 

The second is about Coursera, which is providing online courses from the world's best professors at universities like Stanford, Princeton,  Duke, UC Berkeley, and others... for free!!!  These aren't just videos of college courses, you take tests and, in some cases, get college credit for them, too.  Watch this clip and it explains everything.  "And then like, yo dude, if you wanna hang in class this fall, I'm taking this class at Duke University!" 

Finally, there is this story about the entrepreneur who is paying promising young people a $100,000 salary NOT to finish their degree, and to come work for him instead.  Unfortunately, you need to be in the states or have an ISP blocker to watch the video, but the article is pretty good, too.

So maybe I won't have to give my kids that choice.  Maybe they'll be able to get a job or start up a company, and take online courses at night which allows them to get a degree from Princeton in their spare time.  That way when they tell someone how to run a company when they're 22, they'll be doing so with a bit of experience!

The Trek Begins. Well... the preparation for The Trek Begins.

During the summer of 2014, my son Ben and I are going to spend a month riding the Great Divide bicycle trail (scroll down if you go to the link).  It is 2700 miles of off-road bicycling which runs from Canada to Mexico along the Continental Divide in America.  It is called this because, in theory, every drop of rain that falls to the east of the Divide ends up in the Atlantic Ocean, and every drop which falls to its west is destined for the Pacific.  Ben and I won't have time to ride the whole thing; during our month we hope to ride through most of Montana and Wyoming.  It's an extension of my 'Ideas on Parenting' blogs that I haven't finished writing, but the gist is: 

• For thousands of years, children were deemed to be adults at about the age of 13 by both biology and society; for some odd reason, in the last 100 years we've decided they're not adults until they're 18 or 21.  So we treat teenagers like children, and then we wonder why they act so immaturely.  So the plan is to...
• First, foster an immense challenge for my children at the age of thirteen.  
• They select the challenge; the challenge must be their decision.  (I've been speaking to Ben about this since he was seven.  With his permission, I created a list of 8 potential challenges, all of which were worthy candidates, and he chose the Great Divide from that list).
• Provide a problem-solving, positive environment for them to learn how to overcome the challenge.  Help them, guide them and encourage them, but don't do it for them.
• Overcome the challenge.
• Treat them like the adult they've become once they've completed the challenge.  
• Hope and pray the plan doesn't backfire, and all the other parents laugh at me for trusting my teenager.

I'll get round to writing the full blog about the ideas above relatively soon, but Ben's 13th summer is in two years' time, and he's chosen the Great Divide trail.  So this month we've started doing our research for the adventure.  

The research is proving really cool, so I thought I'd blog some of the details.  The first is about the Great Divide Race which travels the route.  These guys are crazy, they do the entire route in record pace and are just nuts.  Although Ben and I will be taking it MUCH easier than these guys, there is a film about the race, and just to get us excited, it's cool watching the trailer.  Yes, I've downloaded the film, and will be watching it with Ben soon enough.

If you've just watched the trailer, surely you're thinking, "Really, Rick?  Are you really going to do that to your one and only son... Really?"  Well, the other cool thing I learned today was about the support network in place for long-distance cycling in America.  There are a couple of amazing websites, Adventure Cycling and America ByCycle, devoted to this sort of thing.  It seems there's an entire sub-culture of people doing crazy things like riding bicycles for weeks on end.  So much so, they've made a film about the maps we'll be using, and whilst I didn't think a 9 minute film about maps could be worth watching or sharing, I can now report these sound like the best maps of all time.

So watch this space.  More to follow in the months ahead.  

Something light...

Idea.  My kind of parenting - it combines clever parenting with a sense of humor, and subtly instills some important values, too.
Every year a friend of mine, Rhonda Salerno, sends her kids a letter, with a little prank / tease inside it,  during summer camp. Something which helps ensure they'll be EXTRA grateful when they get home.  Check out this year's letter.

Dear Mia,

I hope you are having so much fan at camp hanging out with all your old friends, and meeting new ones too!  It is quite boring here at home since it's just the three of us.

When you get home it will be time for school shopping - can you believe it?? I know you are excited to catch up with your friends!

I'm so happy to report nobody has died since you've been at camp - pets or people; that's a first, right?

BUT, Koby and Roscoe somehow got into the medicine cabinet.  Who knew dogs could crawl on each other's shoulders and open cabinets?  Roscoe must have learned that at dog training!  They got into those chocolate-covered laxatives and they must have tasted really good because they ate the entire box.  I'm sorry to say that when the diarrhoea hit them, they were in your room... I've never seen so much poop in all my life!  We're going to let it dry for a week, hoping it will be easier to clean up.  Maybe we'll get it clean by the time you come home on Saturday, but I'm sure the smell will last forever.   Sorry.

ANYWAY, have a great time at camp - we miss you very much!!!!

Love, 

Mom.

Priceless.