Why we don’t need school…

A thousand years ago the problem was not enough information. You had to really search to find even a little bit of of the stuff. You usually had to travel somewhere to find information, whether it was to the blacksmith to become an apprentice, or to a library to read the scrawling of other thinkers, information was hard to find.

Today, the problem is too much information. We have the world at our fingertips, and we don’t have to go anywhere to get it. Instead of searching out information, now we sift through information.

But the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that the solution to both problems is the same. You need a guide. Apprentice blacksmiths didn’t spend the first four years in the kitchen studying texts. They were on site from day one, living, breathing, experiencing smithery, under the watchful eye of somebody who had the information. This can’t be done in a traditional classroom setting. This is experiential learning, in a live setting. Don’t read the book unless you are searching for answers to a real life problem.

Whether it is a master blacksmith that shows you how to do make a horseshoe, or the master engineer who shows you how to work through the problem solving process, the most important thing is not information, but rather an expert guide. Somebody who asks you questions and makes you seek out answers, who gives you problems that will not overwhelm, or bore you, but challenge and inspire.