MonstersUnderTheBed

Free Coaching Resources - Book Reviews

"The Monster Under The Bed"

By Stan Davis and Jim Botkin

Reviewed by Fred L. Friend

If you are an "educator" or a "trainer", you may have a "monster under the bed" as described by Stan Davis and Jim Botkin in their book published by Touchstone Books (Simon and Schuster, NY), ISBN 0-684-80438-7.

Five year old Megan created a story about a monster under her bed. She created art, edited the story and recorded her narration. She did this all on a personal computer using special software geared to kids her age. She then distributed this to others via an electronic bulletin board for kids stories. Where did a 5 year old learn to do this? Certainly not in school, she wasn't there yet. She learned at home, from the computer itself.

The point of this anecdote (the monster under your bed, if you are in the education or training business), is that many of the critical skills needed to be a "state-of-the-art" contributor are skills that are not learned in the traditional education system (public schools). In fact, these skills may not even be available in many parts of the system. Can your college student do what Megan did?

Of course, we still need the traditional reading, writing, arithmetic and sciences, but what is the most productive way of doing that? Traditional education has "experimented" with different results oriented approaches. Through necessity, non-traditional "educators" (trainers) have leaped ahead - almost a generation.

The authors review the history of educational responsibility from the Church (see Sunday School, page 26) to the State (a federal system of tax supported public secondary schools wasn't established in most states until after an 1874 court ruling that it was legal to do so), to "reluctant heir" - Business. They explain the past (church to state) and current (state to business) transition of the role of educator. Business is a reluctant heir to this role because the current system is not providing what they need. For example, 60 million people have learned to operate a personal computer since 1981 and very few learned how in a public school system.

Today PC's come with "user-learning" included in the product. This is another major point the authors make - building "knowledge" into the product is both necessary and a competitive advantage - just ask VCR manufactures.

The major reason the business community is embracing new learning technology while the education establishment is not, is that business understands it may be a matter of survival. Trainers, does this mean your role may become increasingly valuable to your business - if you adapt? Educators, does this mean in 5 million years from now, your ink will be mined as coal or pumped as oil?

Perhaps not. The authors argue that the worst thing business could do is abandon the public education sector to it's possible fate. They call for a partnership between business and education and for education to recognize that a revolution is underway and reaching the critical mass.

The Seven Ways (Page 15)

First, business is coming to bear the major responsibility for the kind of education that is necessary for any country to remain competitive in the new economy.

(Businesses are instigating the changes.)

Second, the marketplace for learning is being redefined dramatically from K-12 to K-80, or lifelong learning, whose major segments are customers, employees, and students, in that order.

(Lifelong learning is becoming the norm versus just school-age education. Half of what a freshman learns in college may be obsolete by the time they graduate - knowledge is doubling nearly every seven years in technical fields. The responsibility for learning is shifting to the learner themselves.)

Third, any business can become a knowledge business by putting data and information to productive use, creating knowledge based products and services that make it's customers smarter.

(Cellular phones and pagers can track your location to keep you linked into the Internet and even tell you what you need to do to use them - in case you forgot the operators manual. If you are just getting used to the concept of "just-in-time" learning, hold onto your hats for "concurrent learning.)

Fourth, a new generation of smart and humanized technologies will revolutionize learning by employees and customers in business before it affects students and teachers in schools.

(Business has the economic incentives to apply these technologies to distribute the learning to the student - rather than collecting the students to receive the learning.)

Fifth, business driven learning will be organized according to the values of today's information age: service, productivity, customization, networking, and the need to be fast, flexible, and global.

(Customers can sign on and learn how to track their packages on their own on Federal Express's Internet page.)

Sixth, schools will embrace businesslike practices to improve their own performance.

(Lifelong learning will become big business and colleges have already begun to understand that they do not have to say good bye to the best customers at graduation and just adapting technology to the old ways of educating will not work.)

Seventh, the revolution in the way we learn will worsen the already grave division between social classes, requiring us to redress human and social inequities.

(If public schools are not providing the education to be a "state-of-the-art" contributor, what happens to those who cannot access private or for-profit learning?)

Okay, - now what? To find out what opportunity (or monster) exists for you, I recommend you read the next 6 chapters of this small, but impactful book.

Chapter 1. The Reluctant Heir
Chapter 2. Four Steps to Wisdom
Chapter 3. The Chatter, The String, and The Can
Chapter 4. L'Earning Power
Chapter 5. The Last Thing You Want Is A Learning Organization
Chapter 6. The Six R's
Chapter 7. The Better Or Worse

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