That Seems Simple to Me
1997
P: Hi, I’m a programmer. I’m starting an online retail company. What do you two do?
G: Hi, I’m a graphic designer. I know how to select and arrange text and images in ways that are appealing, informative, and usable.
M: And I’m in marketing. I know how to identify people’s needs and craft messages that will appeal to them.
P: Huh. Those both seem much simpler to me than programming. I don’t think I need to hire you.
2003
G&M: So, how did your startup do?
P: It tanked. People kept saying the site was ugly and confusing. I guess I should have hired you back in ’97 after all.
2012
P: Hi, I’m a programmer. I’m starting an online education company. What do you do?
T: Hi, I’m a teacher. I know how to select and arrange learning materials in ways that are appealing, informative, and effective.
P: Huh. That seems simpler to me than programming…
Or, in my case, “I’m starting this site in my basement and wouldn’t have the contacts to get funding even if I were willing to risk debt. I’m the type of programmer who used to gravitate to Macintoshes. I’ll do it all myself and hope my balance of ‘close enough’ architecture and ‘close enough’ UI/UX design is good enough to last until I have a budget.”
(For some ideas I’m currently working on)
With respect, I think you’ll get to “good enough” faster if you have a look at what’s been done before (in everything, not just education). The myth of the inventor who ignores everything that’s been done before but somehow manages to come up with something extraordinary is just that: a myth.
On the one hand, I agree with your point: listen to people with experience. On the other hand, learn when *not* to listen to people with experience in areas where the status quo needs to change; otherwise you’ll never innovate.
T: Hi, I’m a teacher, and I know how to structure lessons to repeat every point several hundred times so that a sufficiently high percentage of my students will pass the standardized test.
P: Screw that, I want to build a site that lets motivated people teach themselves several years worth of material in days or weeks; lessons from babysitting school classrooms will *not* help me here.
If your point is that there’s little to learn from bad teachers in bad schools, I agree. If your point is that the existence of bad schools and bad teachers means we should ignore the good ones, I don’t.
Agree with Anonymous. Since our high school grads haven’t improved in reading nor math and have declined in science since 1970, a teacher’s experience need not be listened to. They don’t have a clue.
Your premise (that graduates’ reading, math, and science haven’t improved since 1970) is incorrect: http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/ignoring-facts-about-schools-and-society-richard-rothstein/.