Most Likely to Succeed is a 2015 documentary directed by Greg Whiteley, showcasing the unique education format offered by High Tech High in San Diego. The school is remarkable largely because it eschews textbooks, standardized tests, and course grades in favor of project-based and self-directed learning, with the goal of helping students to develop the critical thinking, problem solving, and cooperative skills that are increasingly needed in today’s world.

If the merits of this kind of approach are not immediately clear, I would direct you to watch Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 TED Talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity” (in fact, you can do so here: https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity). Around the world, students complete 12 years of pre-secondary education primarily focused on “core” subjects like science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts. In fact, it is the grades achieved in these subjects that most frequently determine whether a given student will be admitted to a post-secondary education program, but are those grades really the best indication of a student’s abilities?

I firmly believe that the principal reason for education is to equip students with the knowledge and skills they will need to be happy and productive members of society. Today’s schools are really good at giving students around the world remarkably similar educations, at least in terms of the broad strokes. The problem is, we don’t necessarily need students to know all the same things, and in some cases, we don’t need them to know any of it at all. The current school system is a direct continuation of that purposefully designed at the onset of the industrial revolution with one goal in mind: to produce many interchangeable, moderately- yet uniformly-skilled workers that could fill positions in factories and drive industry forward. The industrial revolution led to an explosion of new job opportunities, and these jobs required workers across the nation(s) to have very similar skillsets, because a factory in California has the same basic structure as a factory in New York (or London, or Beijing). In the 1800’s it was common for workers to remain within a single career field their entire life, and moving across state lines was almost unheard of, let alone moving to different countries. The educational system that supplied masses of workers for the industrial revolution is painfully ill-equipped to meet the needs of today’s world.

The world has become exponentially more interconnected, and we are exposed to different perspectives, ideologies, and cultures every day. Today’s largest issues are increasingly complex, and require complex solutions. Basic tasks and functions are increasingly automated by machines and artificial intelligence, leaving many graduating high school and University students to flounder despite attaining the same (or greater) levels of education that allowed previous generations to thrive.

Most Likely to Succeed demonstrates both the possibility and value of developing students’ critical thinking, problem solving, and ability to cooperate with one another. With supercomputers in every child’s pocket (and in the home, and at the library) the information of the world has never been more accessible to us, and the need to memorize it has vanished completely. When everybody will have the internet at almost any job they do, knowing how to find and apply information is far more important than committing it to memory in a sterile setting.

Ultimately, the education system needs an overhaul more drastic than most are willing to undertake, and while schools like High Tech High will continue to espouse and model the success of alternative education systems, it is our responsibility as educators to do all we can to help our students grow into critically-thinking, problem-solving, creative, and skilled members of society.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash