Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education — and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world’s poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new kind of school, he says, is what all schools need to become.
In his talk he shares that the learners are in a grade-free, choice-based education marketplace. They choose their classes, and create their own unique learning path, in conjunction with their parents. The average student attends classes only a few hours a week – – the rest of the time they are living life, engaged in the real world with their family. This model, as it is working now, depends on active involvement from parents, but it can be translated into settings where the parent is not as actively involved.
He sees that each situation is different. He says that education would best be served by the Chinese Restaurant model and through serving the local needs of the student, not the cookie-cutter education that we have in America with the Tougher Standards movement.
“Most of the education systems is push not pull, but it should be the opposite.”
