I just finished reading The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida and think he has a realistic perspective of the direction of the US economy. I thought it was very interesting, but its not for everyone - a lot of statistics. It basically brakes down where we fit in to the global economy as a nation and what factors contribute to success - the three T's Talent, Tolerance, and Technology. This book is a sequel to he last book the Rise of the Creative Class.Also in terms of education, I know we say everyday that we are too focused on the "test", standardized testing, but nothing is changing. We need to change the way we teach and the system we teach in. The "test" is necessary I feel, but it should have less priority.
The problems with education do not by any stretch of the imagination start when our children turn eighteen. For decades, many in k-12 circles and elsewhere have called for education reform. What is needed, in fact, a full-scale overhaul in the way we go about teaching our children. We can no longer succeed – or even tread water – with an education system handed down to us from the industrial age, since what we no longer need is an assembly-line workers. We need one that instead reflects and reinforces the values, priorities, and requirements of the creative age. Education reform must, at its core, make schools places when human creativity is cultivated and can flourish.
