I’ve spent all morning thinking about (and being bothered by) this headline and article (from the Daily Beast – by Dana Goldstein): Why the World Is Smarter Than Us: Why does the U.S. lag behind our peers when it comes to educating our students? Dana Goldstein on a new book that looks at school systems across the globe to come away with a startling conclusion: they value the intellect more than we do.
The article is about a new book, with a new take on what’s wrong with American education. The book is The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley (coming out in just a few days). The point of the article/book is clear. We simply do not value intellectual accomplishment as much as countries which are now surpassing us in educational outcomes value such accomplishment. The article ends with this:
The American school reform debate has been desperately in need of such no-nonsense advice, which firmly puts matters of the intellect back at the center of education where they belong.
Here are some lessons for us who think about business success. It seems to me that the following observations are true, and will continue to be true…
#1 – There will be major problems in your endeavor (no matter what your endeavor is.
#2 – You must reach agreement on the exact nature and cause of the problem(s) to have any chance at coming up with a solution.
#3 – Thus, full agreement on the problem is critical. In other words, if the folks are not on the same page regarding “this is our problem” thinking, there is no chance at a successful solution.
#4 – And then, after agreement on the problem, you can tackle a unified pursuit of the best solution.
Big problems require big thinking – serious thinking with intellectual vigor. Looking for the solution then requires the same kind of big thinking – more serious thinking with intellectual vigor.
But, without agreement on the problem, work on the solution is premature, and will not work!
Back to the article. We may have a deficiency in this country of intellectual prowess, thus we end up with fuzzy thinking about the nature of our problems – and, consequently, a shortage of actual solutions.
And, this article, this new book may help us understand our deficiency, explain that deficiency, and then hopefully come to grips with the reality of “yes, we actually have a problem.”
But the deficiency is real.
Yuk!
First Friday Book Synopsis 
One problem is that there are plenty of not-so-rational people out there who do not grasp the problem – or, they deny the problem, or misunderstand the problem…
And, as for “CliffNotes on Steroids.” That is a phrase a listener once wrote after hearing one of my presentations. I think if one were to read the overall accumulation of blog posts, and listen to the accumulating numbers of presentations, it would be clear that we are trying to provide tools for those who want to build their intellectual substance/prowess.
Just this week, I presented my short version of my synopsis of How Children Succeed by Paul Tough. In this one case, I did not distribute my handout. But a stack was put out, all copies were taken, additional ones have been requested, and at least a dozen folks said “I intend to buy the book, read the book, and then give it to my son/daughter.” (In these cases, I think they were thinking of their grandchildren).
What is best? – that people read the books. But to even introduce some key themes from good books is a step in a better direction.