According To Seth Godin, School Is A Complete Failure

A couple of years ago, Seth Godin participated in a phone interview where he released a scathing review of public schools in the United States.

You may have heard it already–and if so, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

While little of this is new at this point, I did again pick up on the concept of creativity Ken Robinson underscored in one of his easy-to-listen-to talks.

The point of here isn’t so much about the quality of public schools, but more so the concept of the suppression of curiosity (another favorite topic of mine).

The audio is only a few minutes long. Give it a listen.

A few representative quotes

“Public School was built… to do two things:

1. Train people to become compliant factory works, sit in straight rows, and do what you’re told.

2. Teach kids that the besy way to fit in is to buy stuff.”

“They churn out people who await instruction….but we don’t churn out people who are innovative, creative, and ask questions, who interrupt…who are by almost any any definition artists. We actually shun those people.”

“We’ve built an economy where there’s a surplus of factory workers…and where there’s a shortage of people who are willing to stand up and do something interesting and unique.”

“School is a complete failure.”