1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 [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 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 which holds that the highest goal in life is to inquire and create, 7 00:01:04,320 --> 00:01:12,160 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 --> 00:01:28,202 The purpose of education from that point of view 11 00:01:28,202 --> 00:01:34,970 is just to help people determine how to learn on their own. 12 00:01:35,076 --> 00:01:41,400 It's you, the learner, who is going to achieve in the course of education. 13 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:46,388 It's really up to you what you'll master, 14 00:01:46,388 --> 00:01:49,268 where you'll go, how you'll use it. 15 00:01:49,268 --> 00:01:57,756 How you'll go on to produce something new and exciting for yourself, maybe for others. 16 00:01:57,756 --> 00:02:00,336 That's one concept of education. 17 00:02:00,336 --> 00:02:03,460 Now the other concept is essentially indoctrination. 18 00:02:03,460 --> 00:02:08,290 People have the idea that from childhood 19 00:02:08,290 --> 00:02:19,600 young people have to be placed into a framework in which they'll follow orders, 20 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:24,360 accept existing frameworks, and not challenge. 21 00:02:24,360 --> 00:02:26,680 And this is often quite explicit. 22 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:35,240 For example, after the activism of the1960s, 23 00:02:35,271 --> 00:02:42,052 there was great concern across much of the educated spectrum 24 00:02:42,052 --> 00:02:48,800 that young people were just getting too free and independent, 25 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,640 that the country was becoming too democratic. 26 00:02:52,838 --> 00:02:59,160 There was an important study on what's called the crisis of democracy--too much democracy-- 27 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:08,640 claiming that there are certain insitutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young-- 28 00:03:08,640 --> 00:03:13,120 that's their phrase-- and they're not doing their job properly. 29 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:18,160 That schools, universities, churches---we have to change them 30 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,223 so that they carry out the job of indoctrination and control more effectively. 31 00:03:22,223 --> 00:03:31,326 That's actually coming from the liberal internationalists' end of the 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 --> 00:03:40,951 to try to turn the educational system towards more control, 34 00:03:40,997 --> 00:03:45,360 more indoctrination, 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 as the tradition that 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 inquiry? 40 00:04:18,368 --> 00:04:25,892 Pursuing interests that are aroused by material 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 research. 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 --> 00:05:05,523 In fact, science couldn't progress unless it was based on inculcation of the urge to challenge, 47 00:05:05,523 --> 00:05:17,000 to question 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 --> 00:05:38,653 which would prefer people to be indoctrinated, 52 00:05:38,653 --> 00:05:43,804 to conform, to not ask too many questions, to be obedient, 53 00:05:43,896 --> 00:05:51,062 to fulfill the roles that are assigned to you and not shake systems of power and authority. 54 00:05:51,062 --> 00:06:01,140 Those are choices we have to make, wherever we stand in the educational system. 55 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. 56 00:06:20,509 --> 00:06:28,175 Well there certainly has been a very substantial growth in new technology-- 57 00:06:28,175 --> 00:06:33,040 technology of information, communication, access interchange. 58 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,967 It's surely a major change in the nature of the culture and society. 59 00:06:37,967 --> 00:06:44,654 We should bear in mind that the technological changes that are taking place now, 60 00:06:44,654 --> 00:06:51,574 while they're significant, probably come nowhere near having as much impact 61 00:06:51,574 --> 00:06:57,200 as technological advances of a century ago. 62 00:06:58,308 --> 00:07:02,597 Let's take just communication. 63 00:07:02,597 --> 00:07:13,563 The shift from a typewriter to a computer or a telephone to email is significant. 64 00:07:13,563 --> 00:07:20,645 But it doesn't begin to compare with a shift from a sailing vessel to a telegraph. 65 00:07:20,645 --> 00:07:27,360 The time that that cut down in communication between England and the United States 66 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,884 was extraordinary as compared with the changes taking place now. 67 00:07:31,884 --> 00:07:34,484 The same is true of other kinds of technology. 68 00:07:34,484 --> 00:07:42,080 The introduction of widespread plumbing in the cities had a huge effect on health, 69 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:45,908 much more than the discovery of antibiotics. 70 00:07:45,908 --> 00:07:48,200 So the changes are real and significant, 71 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:53,571 but we should recognize that others have taken place that were much more dramatic. 72 00:07:53,571 --> 00:07:58,819 As far as the technology itself and education is concerned, 73 00:07:58,819 --> 00:08:04,995 technology is basically neutral. 74 00:08:04,995 --> 00:08:06,481 It's kind of like a hammer. 75 00:08:06,481 --> 00:08:11,822 The hammer doesn't care whether you use it to build a house 76 00:08:11,822 --> 00:08:15,909 or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody's skull. 77 00:08:15,909 --> 00:08:17,905 A hammer can do either. 78 00:08:17,905 --> 00:08:22,320 Same with modern technology, say, the internet, and so on. 79 00:08:22,320 --> 00:08:27,280 The internet is extremely valuable if you know what you're looking for. 80 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,320 I use it all the time for research, I'm sure everyone does. 81 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:35,880 If you know what you're looking for, you have a kind of framework of understanding 82 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:39,825 which directs you through particular things, 83 00:08:39,825 --> 00:08:43,623 and lets you sideline lots of others. 84 00:08:43,623 --> 00:08:46,745 then this can be a very valuable tool. 85 00:08:46,905 --> 00:08:48,881 Of course, you always have to be willing to ask 86 00:08:48,881 --> 00:08:50,413 "Is my framework the right one?" 87 00:08:50,413 --> 00:08:52,040 "Maybe I have to modify it. 88 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." 89 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:08,897 But you can't pursue any kind of inquiry without a relatively clear framework 90 00:09:08,897 --> 00:09:14,887 that's directing your search and helping you choose what's significant and what isn't. 91 00:09:14,887 --> 00:09:17,720 What can be put aside, what can be pursued, 92 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,971 what ought to be challenged, what ought to be developed. 93 00:09:20,971 --> 00:09:25,801 You can't expect somebody to become a biologist 94 00:09:25,801 --> 00:09:35,040 by giving them access to the Harvard University biology library 95 00:09:35,040 --> 00:09:37,120 and say, "Just look through it." 96 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:40,080 That'll give them nothing. 97 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,494 The internet is the same except magnified enormously. 98 00:09:43,494 --> 00:09:47,320 If you don't understand or know what you're looking for, 99 00:09:47,320 --> 00:09:51,320 if you don't have some kind of conception of what matters-- 100 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:56,497 always with the proviso that you're willing to question-- 101 00:09:56,497 --> 00:10:03,649 if you don't have that, exploring the internet 102 00:10:03,649 --> 00:10:08,897 is just picking out random factoids that don't mean anything. 103 00:10:08,897 --> 00:10:16,885 Behind any significant use of contemporary technology-- 104 00:10:16,885 --> 00:10:22,643 the internet, communications systems, graphics, whatever it may be-- 105 00:10:22,643 --> 00:10:33,120 unless behind it is a well constructed, directive, conceptual apparatus, 106 00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:37,643 it is very unlikely to be helpful. 107 00:10:37,643 --> 00:10:39,120 It may turn out to be harmful. 108 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,913 For example, random exploration through the internet 109 00:10:43,913 --> 00:10:48,040 turns out to be a cult generator. 110 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:51,900 You pick up a factoid here, a factoid there 111 00:10:51,900 --> 00:10:53,920 and somebody else refers to it. 112 00:10:53,920 --> 00:10:58,820 All of sudden you have some sort of crazed picture 113 00:10:58,846 --> 00:11:02,256 which has some factual basis but nothing to do with the world. 114 00:11:02,256 --> 00:11:05,920 You have to know how to evaluate, interpret, and understand. 115 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:09,920 Say biology again. 116 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,402 The person who wins the Nobel prize in biology 117 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. 118 00:11:18,742 --> 00:11:20,800 It's the person who knew what to look for. 119 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:25,894 And cultivating that capacity to seek what's significant-- 120 00:11:25,894 --> 00:11:30,240 always willing to question whether you're on the right track-- 121 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,080 that's what education is going to be about. 122 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:38,805 Whether it's using computers and the internet or pencil and paper and books. 123 00:11:53,630 --> 00:11:59,285 Well, education is discussed in terms of whether it's a worthwhile investment. 124 00:11:59,285 --> 00:12:01,754 Does it create human capital 125 00:12:01,754 --> 00:12:05,229 that can be used for economic growth and so on. 126 00:12:05,229 --> 00:12:14,981 And it's a very distorting way to even pose the question, I think. 127 00:12:14,981 --> 00:12:22,226 Do we want to have a society of free, creative, independent individuals, 128 00:12:22,226 --> 00:12:29,555 able to appreciate and to gain from the cultural achievements of the past, and to add to them? 129 00:12:29,571 --> 00:12:30,817 Do we want that? 130 00:12:30,817 --> 00:12:34,560 Or do we want people who can increase GDP? 131 00:12:34,560 --> 00:12:39,348 It's not necessarily the same thing. 132 00:12:39,348 --> 00:12:49,811 An education of the kind that Bertrand Russell, John Dewey and others talked about, 133 00:12:49,811 --> 00:12:52,240 That's a value in itself. 134 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:56,731 Whatever impact it has in the society, it's a value 135 00:12:56,731 --> 00:13:00,840 because it helps create better human beings. 136 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,000 After all, that's what an educational system should be for. 137 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,320 On the other hand, if you want to look at it 138 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,734 in terms of costs and benefits, 139 00:13:09,734 --> 00:13:15,818 take the new technology that we were just talking about, where did that come from? 140 00:13:15,818 --> 00:13:19,400 Well, actually a lot of it was developed right where we're sitting, 141 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:27,056 Down below where we now are was a major laboratory back in the 1950s, 142 00:13:27,056 --> 00:13:29,360 where i was employed in fact. 143 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:39,223 Which had lots of scientists, engineers, people of all kinds of interests-- 144 00:13:39,223 --> 00:13:40,560 philosophers, others. 145 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:45,523 Who were working on developing the basic character 146 00:13:45,523 --> 00:13:51,480 and even the basic tools of the technology that has now come. 147 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:53,520 Computers and the internet for example, 148 00:13:53,520 --> 00:13:58,840 were pretty much in the public sector for decades, 149 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:04,400 funded in places like this, where people were exploring new possibilities 150 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:08,898 that were mostly unthought of, unheard of at the time. 151 00:14:08,898 --> 00:14:10,895 Some of them worked, some didn't. 152 00:14:10,895 --> 00:14:14,982 The ones that worked were finally converted into tools that people could use. 153 00:14:14,982 --> 00:14:18,976 Now that's the way scientific progress takes place. 154 00:14:18,976 --> 00:14:24,847 It's the way that cultural progress takes place generally. 155 00:14:24,847 --> 00:14:28,800 Classical artists, for example, 156 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:33,976 came out of a tradition of craftsmanship that was developed 157 00:14:33,976 --> 00:14:38,680 over long periods with master artisans, with others. 158 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:47,211 Sometimes you can rise on their shoulders and create new, marvelous things. 159 00:14:47,211 --> 00:14:51,533 But it doesn't come from nowhere. 160 00:14:51,533 --> 00:14:59,982 If there isn't a lively cultural and educational system 161 00:14:59,982 --> 00:15:06,205 which is geared towards encouraging creative exploration, 162 00:15:06,205 --> 00:15:16,760 independence of thought, willingness to challenge accepted beliefs. 163 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:24,560 If you don't have that you won't get the technology that will lead to economic gains. 164 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:32,537 Though that I don't think is the prime purpose of cultural enrichment in education. 165 00:15:46,755 --> 00:15:56,480 There is, in the recent period particularly, an increasing shaping of education 166 00:15:56,497 --> 00:16:03,930 from the early ages on towards passing examinations. 167 00:16:03,930 --> 00:16:12,120 Taking tests can be of some use, both for the person who is taking the test-- 168 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:16,920 seeing what I know, and where I am, and what I'm achieving-- 169 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:23,620 and for instructors--what should be changed and improved in developing 170 00:16:23,620 --> 00:16:26,640 the course of instruction. 171 00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,480 But beyond that, they don't really tell you much. 172 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:36,299 I mean I know for many many years, I've been on admissions committees 173 00:16:36,299 --> 00:16:42,880 for entry into advanced graduate programs-- 174 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:45,215 maybe one of the most advanced anywhere-- 175 00:16:45,215 --> 00:16:50,602 and we of course pay some attention to test results, but really not too much. 176 00:16:50,602 --> 00:17:00,215 A person can do magnificently on every test and understand very little. 177 00:17:00,215 --> 00:17:05,138 All of us who've been through schools and colleges and universities 178 00:17:05,138 --> 00:17:06,531 are very familiar with this. 179 00:17:06,531 --> 00:17:14,920 You can be in some course in which you have no interest 180 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:18,466 and there's demand that you pass a test, 181 00:17:18,466 --> 00:17:20,920 and you can study hard for the test, 182 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:25,732 and you can ace it. 183 00:17:25,732 --> 00:17:30,791 And a couple of weeks later you've forgotten what the topic was. 184 00:17:30,791 --> 00:17:32,630 I'm sure we've all had that experience. 185 00:17:32,630 --> 00:17:33,720 I know I have. 186 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:39,132 It can be a useful device if it contributes 187 00:17:39,132 --> 00:17:43,219 to the constructive purposes of education. 188 00:17:43,219 --> 00:17:46,376 If it's just a set of hurdles you have to cross, 189 00:17:46,376 --> 00:17:49,627 it can turn out to be not only meaningless, 190 00:17:49,627 --> 00:17:52,367 but it can divert you away from things that you want to be doing. 191 00:17:52,367 --> 00:17:56,320 I see this regularly when I talk to teachers. 192 00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:00,541 If you want an experience from a couple of weeks ago-- 193 00:18:00,541 --> 00:18:06,299 I happeneed to be talking to a group which included many schoolteachers. 194 00:18:06,299 --> 00:18:09,120 One of them was a sixth grade teacher 195 00:18:09,120 --> 00:18:12,200 who teaches kids who are ten or eleven. 196 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:18,374 She came up to me afterwards and I'd been talking about these students. 197 00:18:18,374 --> 00:18:24,132 She told me of an experience that she had just had in her class. 198 00:18:24,132 --> 00:18:30,640 After class a little girl came up to her and said she was really interested 199 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:35,371 in something that came up and she asked if the teacher could give her some ideas 200 00:18:35,371 --> 00:18:37,042 of how she could look into it further. 201 00:18:37,042 --> 00:18:39,364 And the teacher was compelled to tell her, 202 00:18:39,364 --> 00:18:41,680 "I'm sorry, but you can't do that, 203 00:18:41,680 --> 00:18:46,080 "you have to study to pass this national exam 204 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:49,320 "that's coming that's going to determine your future." 205 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:51,680 The teacher didn't say it, "but it's going to determine my future, 206 00:18:51,680 --> 00:18:57,522 whether I am rehired." 207 00:18:57,522 --> 00:19:01,470 The system is geared to getting the children to pass hurdles, 208 00:19:01,470 --> 00:19:04,680 but not to learn and understand and explore. 209 00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:10,061 That child would have been better off if she had been allowed to explore 210 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. 211 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:19,760 They'll come along when they fit into her interests and concerns. 212 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:26,547 So, I don't say that tests should be eliminated, 213 00:19:26,547 --> 00:19:30,123 they can be a useful educational tool. 214 00:19:30,123 --> 00:19:35,975 But ancillary--something that is helping improve ourselves, 215 00:19:35,975 --> 00:19:39,550 for instructors, and others, what we're doing--tell us where we are. 216 00:19:39,550 --> 00:19:51,676 Passing tests doesn't begin to compare with searching 217 00:19:51,676 --> 00:19:59,080 and inquiring into pursuing topics that engage us and excite us. 218 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:02,720 That's far more significant than passing tests. 219 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:09,133 In fact, if that's the kind of educational career 220 00:20:09,133 --> 00:20:11,200 that you're given the opportunity to pursue, 221 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,380 you'll remember what you discovered. 222 00:20:14,380 --> 00:20:17,680 (Someone) is a world famous physicist 223 00:20:17,680 --> 00:20:27,720 right here at MIT who was teaching freshman courses. 224 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:32,249 He once said that in his freshman course, 225 00:20:32,249 --> 00:20:36,720 students will ask, "What are we going to cover this semester?" 226 00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:39,095 And his standard answer was, 227 00:20:39,095 --> 00:20:42,560 "It doesn't matter what we cover, it matters what you discover." 228 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:43,963 That's right. 229 00:20:43,963 --> 00:20:49,840 Teaching ought to be inspiring students to discover on their own. 230 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:55,387 To challenge if they don't agree. 231 00:20:55,387 --> 00:20:59,120 To look for alternatives if they think there are better ones. 232 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 233 00:21:05,046 --> 00:21:06,360 because they're interested in them. 234 00:21:06,360 --> 00:21:12,560 If that's the way teaching is done, 235 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:19,211 students will really gain from it and will not only remember what they've studied 236 00:21:19,211 --> 00:21:22,800 but be able to use it as a basis for going on their own. 237 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,062 And again, education is really aimed 238 00:21:25,062 --> 00:21:31,471 at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own. 239 00:21:31,471 --> 00:21:35,464 Because that's what you're going to do for you life. 240 00:21:35,464 --> 99:59:59,999 Not just absorb materials that are given to you from the outside and repeat it.