A case for "jobs stimulus" in the U.S. that subsidizes American consumers and producers of customized education, and American providers of associated online markets
From NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, a 2009 book that appeared on The New York Times’ best-sellers list for two months:
“When a child gets to choose, they presumably choose activities they’re motivated to do [says Dr. Silvia Bunge, a neuroscientist at the University of California at Berkeley]. Motivation is crucial. Motivation is experienced in the brain as the release of dopamine. It’s not released like other neurotransmitters, into the synapses, but rather it’s sort of spritzed onto large areas of the brain, which enhances the signaling of neurons.” The motivated brain, literally, operates better, signals faster.
From Saving Schools, a forthcoming 2010 book by Harvard professor of government Paul E. Peterson:
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham provides an explanation for the power of customized learning. “Working on problems that are the right level of difficulty is rewarding, but working on problems that are too easy or too difficult is unpleasant,” he notes.
Follow This Path, a 2002 book published by The Gallup Organization, provides historic data that is highly suggestive of CE’s superiority relative to standardized education. From Follow This Path:
[Gallup's] hundreds of studies proved time after time that talent makes a huge impact on profitable growth across every major type of occupation and industry…superior performers…follow their instincts and thereby identify and develop their specialties. Almost always they do this on their own.
By definition, an education that is customized to fit a learner’s values and aptitudes will tap the learner’s intrinsic motivation.
Creativity takes shape at the intersection of intrinsic motivation, creativity skills and domain knowledge.
From a 2004 article by Dr. Theresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School:
Almost all of the [creativity] research…shows that anyone with normal intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work. Creativity depends on a number of things: experience, including knowledge and technical skills; talent; an ability to think in new ways; and the capacity to push through uncreative dry spells. Intrinsic motivation — people who are turned on by their work often work creatively — is especially critical. Over the past five years, organizations have paid more attention to creativity and innovation than at any other time in my career. But I believe most people aren’t anywhere near to realizing their creative potential, in part because they’re laboring in environments that impede intrinsic motivation.
Creativity is thought to be a better predictor of high achievement than intelligence.
From an interview with Dr. E. Paul Torrance, a University of Georgia psychologist renowned as the “father of creativity,” that is transcribed in the November 2000 issue of the Psychology Online Journal:
Interviewer: How does creativity relate to intelligence?
Dr. Torrance: Very little. Figure creativity does not relate to intelligence at all. There is a relationship between intelligence and verbal creativity. There is consistent research over 30 or 40 years. It goes like this: If you give children in school a creativity test and an intelligence test, there is only about a 30 percent overlap. By just measuring intelligence you miss 70 percent of the creative students. In follow-up studies of creative achievement we find that the highly creative out-achieve everybody.
Interviewer: Then creativity would be better as a predictor of achievement than intelligence.
Dr. Torrance: Yes.
Interviewer: Is there a difference between problem solving and creativity?
Dr. Torrance: Problem solving requires both creative and critical thinking.
VERY importantly, the build-out of the CE industry will almost certainly benefit children who still receive a more or less standardized education after the build-out is underway. In particular, these children are likely to benefit from a proliferation of CE offerings for teachers.
From What Makes a Great Teacher?, an article in the January 2010 issue of The Atlantic:
Teach for America [a nonprofit that recruits college graduates to spend two years teaching in low-income schools] has been…for more than a decade…tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and analyzing why some teachers can move those kids three grade levels ahead in one year and others can’t.
…Those who have been accepted [as TFA teachers] will go to a Teach for America training institute. That’s when Steven Farr, the in-house professor, and his colleagues take over. For them, the challenge is not to pick the perfect teacher but to diagnose strengths and weaknesses early and provide intense, customized training to correct them.
…This year, D.C. public schools have begun using a new evaluation system for all faculty and staff, from teachers to custodians…Throughout the year, teachers will receive customized training. The handbook for the new system looks eerily similar to the Teach for America model, which is not a coincidence.
From The Death and Life of the Great American School System, a forthcoming 2010 book by Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education:
TFA sends fewer than 10,000 new teachers each year into a profession with nearly 4 million members.
Better still for children, the CE industry can be expected to advocate VIGOROUSLY for increased public spending on the best complements to CE: early-childhood education, and child care more generally.
From a February 12, 2009 entry on the Economix blog of the New York Times:
Willing to invest for the long term? Looking for a socially responsible growth industry offering consistently high returns? Want to “buy American” and create domestic jobs without discouraging international trade? Consider the benefits of public investments in early childhood education.
…The University of Chicago economist and Nobel Prize winner James Heckman puts his reputation on the line for it, mobilizing a tremendous amount of evidence on the impact of model programs on children’s cognitive skills and personality traits like conscientiousness. As he puts it, “learning begets learning.”
…His estimate of the average rate of return — explained below — recalls a number that stockbrokers once promised us we could get in our private retirement accounts: 12 percent per annum.
Two economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Rob Grunewald and Art Rolnick, have published reports rallying members of the business community around early childhood education. The Partnership for America’s Economic Success recently posted two important papers on the long-term economic benefits, including one showing that the impact on jobs and earnings far exceeds the benefits of state tax subsidies designed to attract industries from other states.
Studies like these calculate rates of return by comparing the costs of public investment in children against a variety of benefits, including better outcomes in school, lower risks of crime and teenage pregnancy, higher earnings and resulting higher tax revenues, and local economic effects like increased labor-force participation of parents.
From The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, a 2007 book by David Kirp, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley:
[Rob] Dugger, an economist and Beltway insider…has worked for decades in Washington, first as a staffer with both the House and Senate banking committees as well as the Federal Reserve Bank…
…Promoting economic growth is Dugger’s goal…His analysis starts with the research that shows the economic payoff generated by investments in prekindergarten, prenatal care, Early Head Start, and home nursing visits. “The message is that high-quality pre-K delivers a 15-percent return forever,” he says, but the nation has slipped into a “structural trap,” as pressure from interest groups has led to public investments that favor housing and consumerism over human capital…The consequences are disastrous, Dugger argues. A generation from now countries like China, which are spending heavily on early education, will have a skilled workforce that will leave Americans in the dust.
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Benefits for Children
From NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, a 2009 book that appeared on The New York Times’ best-sellers list for two months:
From Saving Schools, a forthcoming 2010 book by Harvard professor of government Paul E. Peterson:
Follow This Path, a 2002 book published by The Gallup Organization, provides historic data that is highly suggestive of CE’s superiority relative to standardized education. From Follow This Path:
By definition, an education that is customized to fit a learner’s values and aptitudes will tap the learner’s intrinsic motivation.
Creativity takes shape at the intersection of intrinsic motivation, creativity skills and domain knowledge.
From a 2004 article by Dr. Theresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School:
Creativity is thought to be a better predictor of high achievement than intelligence.
From an interview with Dr. E. Paul Torrance, a University of Georgia psychologist renowned as the “father of creativity,” that is transcribed in the November 2000 issue of the Psychology Online Journal:
VERY importantly, the build-out of the CE industry will almost certainly benefit children who still receive a more or less standardized education after the build-out is underway. In particular, these children are likely to benefit from a proliferation of CE offerings for teachers.
From What Makes a Great Teacher?, an article in the January 2010 issue of The Atlantic:
From The Death and Life of the Great American School System, a forthcoming 2010 book by Diane Ravitch, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education:
Better still for children, the CE industry can be expected to advocate VIGOROUSLY for increased public spending on the best complements to CE: early-childhood education, and child care more generally.
From a February 12, 2009 entry on the Economix blog of the New York Times:
From The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, a 2007 book by David Kirp, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley: