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My take away from Dale Carnegie's timeless classic "How to Win Friends and Influence People". This is one of the premier books to anyone interested in bettering themselves. Mr. Carnegie shares his business experience to demonstrate how to motivate and inspire people. This book is a treasure trove of simple yet often forgotten wisdom in how to relate to people.
To listen and view the talk I'm discussing you can view it here.
My thoughts on Geoff Mulgan's TEDTalk on "Studio Schools". I'm not sure how this is much different than trade schools or vocational schools. I never understood why these weren't incorporated into the basic curriculum instead separated out as something of its own. These skills seem like necessities for engineering. I share my thoughts on how I would do education.
In summary: take a scaffolding approach and demonstrate the evolution of technology through history. This teaches engineering, math/science, problem solving, and history. The course would walk through the major technological inventions throughout history and require students to build them from scratch just as the inventors did. They then can see the limitations and the reason for the evolution of the technologies. This would also strongly solidify a foundation for students to understand where we came from and where we can go. The same concept could be applied to any evolutionary trait such as language, religion, philosophies, anthropology, etc.
We must involve, i.e. engage our students and not silo their education. Reminds me of the old adage: "Tell me, I'll forget; Show me, I'll remember; Involve me and I'll understand"
