1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,120 music 2 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:44,800 Well, we could ask ourselves what the purpose of an educational system is 3 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:50,550 and of course there are sharp differences on this matter. 4 00:00:50,550 --> 00:00:54,010 Now, there's the traditional interpretation 5 00:00:54,010 --> 00:00:57,469 that comes from the Enlightenment 6 00:00:57,469 --> 00:01:04,320 that holds that the highest goal in life is to inquire 7 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:12,160 and create, to search the riches of the past, 8 00:01:12,160 --> 00:01:18,720 and try to internalize the parts of them that are significant to you 9 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:24,126 and carry that quest for understanding further in your own way. 10 00:01:24,126 --> 00:01:33,971 The purporse of education from taht point of view is just to help people to get their own help, to learn 11 00:01:33,971 --> 00:01:35,968 on their own. 12 00:01:35,968 --> 00:01:41,400 It's you, the learner, who is going to achieve in the course of education. 13 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:47,480 It's really up to you what you'll master, where you'll go, 14 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:57,160 how you'll use it, how you'll go on to produce something new and exciting for yourself, maybe for others. 15 00:01:57,160 --> 00:02:00,813 That's one concept of education. 16 00:02:00,813 --> 00:02:03,460 Now the other concept is essentially indoctrination. 17 00:02:03,460 --> 00:02:08,290 People have the idea that from childhood 18 00:02:08,290 --> 00:02:19,600 young people have to be placed into a framework in which they'll follow orders, 19 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:24,360 accept existing frameworks, and not challenge. 20 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,680 And this is often quite explicit. 21 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:37,440 For example, after the activism of hte 1960s, there was great concern 22 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,052 across much of the educated spectrum 23 00:02:42,052 --> 00:02:48,800 that young people were just getting too free and independent, 24 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,640 that the country was becoming too democratic and so on. 25 00:02:52,640 --> 00:02:59,160 There was an important study on what's called the crisis of democracy, too much democracy, 26 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:08,640 claiming that there are certain insitutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young-- 27 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:13,120 that's their phrase-- and they're not doing their job properly. 28 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:18,160 That schools, universities, churches---we have to change them 29 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,223 so that they carry out the job of indocrintation and control more effectively. 30 00:03:22,223 --> 00:03:25,080 That's actually coming from the liberal internationalists 31 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:31,480 end of hte spectrum of educated opinion. 32 00:03:31,480 --> 00:03:34,720 In fact, since that time there have been many measures taken 33 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:42,520 to try to turn the educational system towards more control, more indoctrination, 34 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,360 more vocational training. 35 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:53,680 Imposing a debt which traps students, young people, into a life of conformity. 36 00:03:53,680 --> 00:04:01,760 That's the exact opposite of what I referred to that traditionally comes out of the enlightenment. 37 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:03,760 There's a constrant struggle between those. 38 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:13,817 In the colleges and the schools, do you train for passing tests? 39 00:04:13,817 --> 00:04:18,368 Or do you train for creative inquiriy? 40 00:04:18,368 --> 00:04:25,892 Pursiung interests that are aroused by materil that's presented, you want to pursue either on your own 41 00:04:25,892 --> 00:04:27,120 or in cooperation with others. 42 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:34,120 And this goes all the way through up to graduate school and researh. 43 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,680 Just two different ways of looking at the world. 44 00:04:37,680 --> 00:04:42,600 When you get to a research institution like the one we're now in, 45 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:49,640 at the graduate level, it essentially follows the enlightment tradition. 46 00:04:49,640 --> 00:05:05,969 In fact, science couldn't progress unless it was based on inculcation of the urge to challenege, to question 47 00:05:05,969 --> 00:05:17,000 doctrine, question authority, search for alternatives, use your imagination freely of your own impulses. 48 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:22,130 Cooperative work with others is constant as you can see just by walking down the halls. 49 00:05:22,130 --> 00:05:28,280 That's my view of what an educational system should be like down to kindergarten. 50 00:05:28,280 --> 00:05:34,809 But there certainly are powerful structures in society 51 00:05:34,809 --> 00:05:42,053 which would prefer people to be indoctrinated, to conform, to not ask too many questions, to be obedient, 52 00:05:42,053 --> 00:05:51,062 to fulfill the roles that are assigned to you and not shake systems of power and authority 53 00:05:51,062 --> 00:06:01,140 Those are choices we have to make, wherever we stand in the educational system. 54 00:06:01,140 --> 00:06:07,520 As students, as teachers, as people on the outside trying to help shape it in the direction that we think it ought to go. 55 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:21,806 Well there certainly has been a very substantial growth in new technology-- 56 00:06:21,806 --> 00:06:33,040 technology of information, communication, access interchange. 57 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,967 It's surely a major change in the nature of hte culture and society. 58 00:06:37,967 --> 00:06:44,654 We should bear in mind that the technological changes that are taking place now, 59 00:06:44,654 --> 00:06:51,574 while they're significant probably come nowhere near having as much impact 60 00:06:51,574 --> 00:06:57,200 as technological advances of a century ago. 61 00:06:57,200 --> 00:07:02,200 Let's take communicaiton. 62 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:08,640 The shift from a typewriter to a computer or a telephone to email is significant. 63 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:20,645 But it doesn't begin to compare with a shift from a sailing vessel to a telegraph. 64 00:07:20,645 --> 00:07:27,360 Tge time that that cut down in communication between England and the United States 65 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,884 was extraordinary as compared with the changes taking place now. 66 00:07:31,884 --> 00:07:34,484 The same is true of other kinds of technology. 67 00:07:34,484 --> 00:07:42,080 The introduction of widespread plumbing in the cities had a huge effect on health, 68 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,908 much more than the discovery of antibiotics. 69 00:07:45,908 --> 00:07:48,200 So the changes are real and significant, 70 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:53,571 but we should recognize that others have taken place that were much more dramatic. 71 00:07:53,571 --> 00:07:58,819 As far as the technology itself and education is concerned, 72 00:07:58,819 --> 00:08:04,995 technology is basically neutral. 73 00:08:04,995 --> 00:08:06,481 It's kind of like a hammer. 74 00:08:06,481 --> 00:08:11,822 The hammer doesn't care whether you use it to build a house 75 00:08:11,822 --> 00:08:15,909 or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody's skull. 76 00:08:15,909 --> 00:08:17,905 A hammer can do either. 77 00:08:17,905 --> 00:08:22,320 Same with modern technology, say, the internet, and so on. 78 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:27,280 The internet is extremely valuable if you iknow what you're looking for. 79 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,320 I use it all the time for research, I'm sure everyone does. 80 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:35,880 If you know what you're looking for, you have a kind of framework of understanding 81 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,825 which directs you through particular things 82 00:08:39,825 --> 00:08:46,745 then this can be a very valuable tool. 83 00:08:46,745 --> 00:08:48,881 Of course, you always have to be willing to ask 84 00:08:48,881 --> 00:08:50,413 "Is my framework the right one?" 85 00:08:50,413 --> 00:08:52,040 Maybe I have to modify it." 86 00:08:52,040 --> 00:08:57,920 Maybe if there's something I look at that questions it, I should rethink how I'm looking at things." 87 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:08,897 But you can't pursue any kind of inquiry without a relatively clear framework 88 00:09:08,897 --> 00:09:14,887 that's directing your search and helping you choose what's significant and what isn't. 89 00:09:14,887 --> 00:09:17,720 What can be put aside, what can be pursued, 90 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,971 what ought to be challenged, what ought to be developed. 91 00:09:20,971 --> 00:09:25,801 You can't expect somebody to become a biologist 92 00:09:25,801 --> 00:09:35,040 by giving them access to the Harvard University biology library 93 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,120 and say, "Just look through it." 94 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,080 That'll give them nothing. 95 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,494 The internet is the same except magnified enormously. 96 00:09:43,494 --> 00:09:47,320 If you don't undertsand or know what you're looking for, 97 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:51,320 if you don't have some kind of conception of what matters-- 98 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:56,497 always with the proviso that you're willing to question-- 99 00:09:56,497 --> 00:10:03,649 if you don't have that, exploring the internet 100 00:10:03,649 --> 00:10:08,897 is just picking out random factoids that don't mean anything. 101 00:10:08,897 --> 00:10:16,885 Behind any significant use of contemporary technology-- 102 00:10:16,885 --> 00:10:22,643 the internet, communicaitons systems, graphics, whatever it may be-- 103 00:10:22,643 --> 00:10:33,120 unless behind it is a well constructed, directive, conceptual apparatus, 104 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:37,643 it is very unlikely to be helpful. 105 00:10:37,643 --> 00:10:39,120 It may turn out to be harmful. 106 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,913 For example, random exploration through the internet 107 00:10:43,913 --> 00:10:48,040 turns out to be a cult generator. 108 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,900 You pick up a factoid here, a factoid there 109 00:10:51,900 --> 00:10:53,920 and someboyd else refers to it, 110 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:58,820 and all of sudden you have some sort of crazed picture 111 00:10:58,820 --> 00:11:02,256 which has some factual basis but nothing to do with the world. 112 00:11:02,256 --> 00:11:05,920 You have to know how to evaluate, interpret, and understand. 113 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,920 Say biology again. 114 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,402 The person who wins the Nobel prize in biology 115 00:11:13,402 --> 00:11:18,742 is not the person who read the most journal articles and took the most notes on them. 116 00:11:18,742 --> 00:11:20,800 It's the person who knew what to look for. 117 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:25,894 And cultivating that capacity to seek what's significant-- 118 00:11:25,894 --> 00:11:30,240 always willing to question whether you're on the right track-- 119 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,080 that's what education is going to be about. 120 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:38,805 Whether it's using computers and the internet or pencil and paper and books. 121 00:11:38,805 --> 00:11:59,285 Well, education is discussed in terms of whether it's a worthwhile investment 122 00:11:59,285 --> 00:11:59,785 Does it create human capital? 123 00:11:59,785 --> 00:12:05,229 It can be used for economic growth and so on. 124 00:12:05,229 --> 00:12:14,981 And it's a very distorting way to even pose the question, I think. 125 00:12:14,981 --> 00:12:22,226 Do we want to have a society of free, creative, independent individuals, 126 00:12:22,226 --> 00:12:28,217 able to appreciate and to gain from the cutlural achievements of the past, and to add to them? 127 00:12:28,217 --> 00:12:30,817 Do we want that? 128 00:12:30,817 --> 00:12:34,560 Or do we want people who can increase GDP? 129 00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:37,640 It's not necessarily the same thing. 130 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:49,811 An education of the kind that ---- John Dewey and others talked about, 131 00:12:49,811 --> 00:12:51,040 That's a value in itself. 132 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:56,731 Whatever impact it has in the society, it's a value 133 00:12:56,731 --> 00:13:00,840 because it helps create better human beings. 134 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,000 After all, that's what an educational system should be for. 135 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,320 On the other hand, if you want to look at it 136 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,734 in terms of costs and benetifs, 137 00:13:09,734 --> 00:13:15,818 take the new technology that we were just talking about, where did that come from? 138 00:13:15,818 --> 00:13:19,400 Well, actually a lot of it was developed right where we're sitting, 139 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:27,056 Down below where we now are was a major laboratory back in the 1950s, 140 00:13:27,056 --> 00:13:29,360 where i was employed in fact,. 141 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:39,223 Which had lots of scientists, engineers, people of all kinds of interests-- 142 00:13:39,223 --> 00:13:40,560 philosophers, others. 143 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:47,815 Who were working on developing the basic character and even the basic tools 144 00:13:47,815 --> 00:13:51,480 of the technology that has now come. 145 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:53,520 Computers and the internet for example, 146 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,840 were pretty much in the public sector for decades, 147 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:04,400 funded in places like this, where people were exploring new possibilities 148 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:08,898 that were mostly unthought of, unheard of at the time. 149 00:14:08,898 --> 00:14:10,895 Some of them worked, some didn't. 150 00:14:10,895 --> 00:14:14,982 The ones that worked were finally converted into tools that people could use. 151 00:14:14,982 --> 00:14:18,976 Now that's the way scientific prgress takes place. 152 00:14:18,976 --> 00:14:23,062 It's the way that cultural prgress takes place generally. 153 00:14:23,062 --> 00:14:28,800 Classical artists, for example, 154 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:33,976 came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed 155 00:14:33,976 --> 00:14:38,680 over long periods with master artisans, with others. 156 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:47,211 Sometimes you can rise on their shoulders and create new, marvelous things. 157 00:14:47,211 --> 00:14:51,902 But it doesn't come from nowhere. 158 00:14:51,902 --> 00:14:59,982 If there isn't a lively cultural and educational system 159 00:14:59,982 --> 00:15:06,205 which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, 160 00:15:06,205 --> 00:15:16,760 independence of thought, williingness to challenge accepted beliefs. 161 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:24,560 If youdon't have that you won't get teh technology that will lead to economic gains. 162 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:32,537 Though that I don't think is the prime purpose of cultural enrichment in education. 163 00:15:32,537 --> 00:15:56,480 There is in the recent period particularly an increasing shaping of educaiton 164 00:15:56,480 --> 00:16:03,930 from the early ages towards passing examinations. 165 00:16:03,930 --> 00:16:12,120 Taking tests can be of some use, both for the person who is taking the test-- 166 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:16,920 seeing what I know, and where I am, and what I'm achieving-- 167 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:23,620 and for instructors--what should be changed and improved in developing 168 00:16:23,620 --> 00:16:26,640 the course of instruction. 169 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,480 But beyond that, they don't really tell you much. 170 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:36,299 I mean I know for many many years, I've been on admissions committees 171 00:16:36,299 --> 00:16:42,880 for entry into and advanced graduate programs-- 172 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,215 maybe one of the most advanced anywhere-- 173 00:16:45,215 --> 00:16:50,602 and we of course pay some attention to test results, but really not too much. 174 00:16:50,602 --> 00:17:00,215 A person can do magnificently on every test and undrestand very little. 175 00:17:00,215 --> 00:17:05,138 All of us who've been through schools and colleges and universities 176 00:17:05,138 --> 00:17:06,531 are very familiar with this. 177 00:17:06,531 --> 00:17:14,920 You can be in some course that you have no interest in 178 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:18,466 and there's demand that you pass a test, 179 00:17:18,466 --> 00:17:20,920 and you can study hard for the test, 180 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:24,240 and you can ace it. 181 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:29,612 And a couple of weeks later you've forgotten 182 00:17:29,612 --> 00:17:31,376 what the roptic was. 183 00:17:31,376 --> 00:17:32,630 I'm sure we've all had that experience. 184 00:17:32,630 --> 00:17:33,720 I know I have. 185 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:39,132 It can be a useful device if it contributes 186 00:17:39,132 --> 00:17:43,219 to the constructive purposes of education. 187 00:17:43,219 --> 00:17:46,376 If it's just a set of hurdles you have to cross, 188 00:17:46,376 --> 00:17:49,627 it can turn out to be not only meaningless, 189 00:17:49,627 --> 00:17:52,367 but it can divert you away from things that you want to be doing. 190 00:17:52,367 --> 00:17:56,320 I see this regularly when I talk to teachers. 191 00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:00,541 If you want an epxerience from a couple of weeks ago-- 192 00:18:00,541 --> 00:18:06,299 I happeneded to be talking to a group which included many schoolteachers. 193 00:18:06,299 --> 00:18:09,120 One of them was a sixth grade teacher 194 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:12,200 who teaches kids who are ten or eleven. 195 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:18,374 She came up to me aferwards and I'd been talking about these students. 196 00:18:18,374 --> 00:18:24,132 She told me of an experience that she had just had in her class. 197 00:18:24,132 --> 00:18:30,640 After class a little girl came up to her and said she was really interested 198 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,371 in something that came up and she asked if the teacher could give her some ideas 199 00:18:35,371 --> 00:18:37,042 of how she could look into it further. 200 00:18:37,042 --> 00:18:39,364 And the teacher was compelled to tell her, 201 00:18:39,364 --> 00:18:41,680 "I'm sorry, but you can't do that, 202 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:46,080 you have to sutdy to pass this national exam 203 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,320 that's coming that's going to determine your future." 204 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:51,680 The teacher didn't say it, but it's going to determine my future, 205 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:57,522 whether I am rehired. 206 00:18:57,522 --> 00:19:01,470 The system is geared to getting the children to pass hurdles, 207 00:19:01,470 --> 00:19:04,680 but not to learn and understand and explore. 208 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:10,061 That child would have been better off if she had been allowed to explore 209 00:19:10,061 --> 00:19:14,960 what she was interested in and maybe not do so well on the test about things she wasn't interested in. 210 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:19,760 They'll come along when they fit into her interests and concerns. 211 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:26,547 So, I don't say that tests should be eliminated, 212 00:19:26,547 --> 00:19:30,123 they can be a useful education tool. 213 00:19:30,123 --> 00:19:35,975 But ancillary--something that is helping improve ourselves, 214 00:19:35,975 --> 00:19:39,550 for instructors, and others, what we're doing--tell us where we are. 215 00:19:39,550 --> 00:19:52,368 Passing tests doesn't begin to compare with searching and inquiring, 216 00:19:52,368 --> 00:19:59,080 into pursuing topics that engage us, excite us. 217 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,720 That's far more significant than passing tests. 218 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:09,133 In fact, if that's the kind of educational career 219 00:20:09,133 --> 00:20:11,200 that you're given the opportunity to pursue, 220 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,380 you'll remember what you discovered. 221 00:20:14,380 --> 00:20:17,680 (Someone) is a world famous physicist 222 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:27,720 right here at MIT who was teaching freshman courses. 223 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:28,280 He once said that in his freshman course, 224 00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:36,720 students will ask, "What are we going to cover this semester?" 225 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:38,480 And his standarad answer was, 226 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:42,560 "It doesn't matter what we cover, it matters what you discover." 227 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:43,963 That's right. 228 00:20:43,963 --> 00:20:49,840 Teaching ougth to be inspiring students to discover on their own. 229 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:55,387 To challenge if they don't agree. 230 00:20:55,387 --> 00:20:59,120 To look for alternatives if they think they're better ones. 231 00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:05,046 To work through the great achievements of the past and try to master them on their own 232 00:21:05,046 --> 00:21:06,360 because they're interested in them. 233 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:12,560 If that's the way teaching is done, 234 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:19,211 students will really gain from it and will not only remember what they've studied 235 00:21:19,211 --> 00:21:22,800 but be able to use it as a basis for going on their own. 236 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,062 And again, education is really aimed 237 00:21:25,062 --> 00:21:31,471 at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own. 238 00:21:31,471 --> 00:21:35,464 Becuase that's what you're going to do for you life. 239 00:21:35,464 --> 99:59:59,999 Not just absorb materials that are given to you from the outside and repeat it.