This blog was first published April 18, 2012 on CNN.com
By Tony Wagner, Special to CNN
Policymakers and
educators alike talk about all students having to be “college-ready,” and many
business leaders believe that America’s economic future depends on more
students taking courses in science, technology, engineering and math. However,
it is clear to me that the more important goal is for all students to graduate
from high school or college “innovation-ready,” and merely requiring students
to take more of the same kinds of classes will not be adequate preparation. To
meet this ambitious goal, both parents and teachers must work to develop
children’s curiosity and imagination, teaching them the skills and dispositions
that matter most.
For my latest book, Creating Innovators: The Making
of Young People Who Will Change the World, I interviewed scores of
highly creative and entrepreneurial young people to understand the most
important influences that enable someone to become an innovator. I also talked
with their parents and the teachers and mentors whom they told me had made the greatest
difference in their lives. Finally, I interviewed younger children’s parents
who also had successful careers as innovators and entrepreneurs. Shifting
through all of this data, I discovered some fascinating patterns of parenting
and teaching associated with “creating” a young innovator.
Traditional “helicopter
parents” indulge their children’s every whim, while hovering and protecting
them from adversity. By contrast, “tiger moms” – derived from the title of Amy
Chua’s 2011 best-seller – demand perfection and threaten to give away their
children’s most precious toys when they cannot play a piano piece perfectly.
These two seemingly different approaches to parenting have a common goal: Both
are trying to manage their children for “success”– conventionally defined.
Yet merely sending your
child to the “right” schools and ensuring that they get good grades are no
longer guarantees of success. More than a third of all recent college graduates
are living at home today – either unemployed or underemployed. It is
increasingly clear that young people who have developed a capacity to be
innovative and entrepreneurial – who have the interest in and capability to
create their own jobs – will have the most satisfying lives and rewarding
careers in the future. Innovation is the skill in greatest demand in the
workplace today and is the one least likely to be outsourced or automated.
For the
innovation-minded parents whom I interviewed, developing their children’s
intrinsic motivation was their most important goal. And they did so by
encouraging their children’s play, passion and purpose.
The kinds of childhood
play that these parents encouraged was often unstructured and self-initiated.
They brought their children fewer toys – and only ones that encouraged more
creative play, such as Legos, versus video games and took them to fewer
after-school lessons. These parents also limited screen time – often watching
only a few hours a week of TV together as a family and keeping a close eye on
computers that were strategically placed in a family area rather than in their
children’s rooms.
While not overly
structuring their time, nevertheless parents of young innovators created a
buffet of opportunities for their children, allowing them to explore different
sports and musical instruments as well as other activities such as scouting.
Love of learning and developing genuine interests were more highly valued by
these parents than becoming an excellent athlete or musician. Parents of young
innovators understand that the wellspring of perseverance and self-discipline
essential for mastery is best developed through the pursuit of a passion, but
that children’s passions often evolve, and that children should not be pushed
to continue to pursue activities that no longer interest them.
All of the parents whom
I interviewed talked with their children about “giving back” and modeled this
behavior as well. As a result, every one of the young innovators whom I spoke
to was pursuing more than just a passion – but rather a deeper sense of purpose
in their work: Creating better and more affordable Third World technologies;
exploring green energy sources and manufacturing processes; preserving
endangered wildlife; igniting children’s passion for science; organizing new
community-based learning opportunities; mentoring disadvantaged adolescents –
these were just a few of the projects the young innovators whom I talked to
have initiated.
The schooling of these
young innovators was often more problematic. Most learned to innovate in spite
of their schooling – not because of it – including those who went to some of
the “best” colleges.
However, the majority of
the young people whom I interviewed could name at least one teacher who had
made a critical difference in their development. In interviews with these
remarkable teachers, I discovered that they, too, reinforced the intrinsic
motivations of play, passion and purpose, while teaching students to work in
teams, take risks and learn from failure.
Kirk Phelps, who became
a product developer for Apple’s first iPhone, said that he learned the skills
he needed most in classes taught by an outlier at Stanford, Ed Carryer, who
requires his students to solve problems in teams through interdisciplinary
projects. Carryer’s goals as a teacher, he told me, are to “empower” his
students to be able use what they know – not merely regurgitate it on a test –
and to motivate them with assignments that have a strong element of “whimsy.”
Amy Smith, another
outlier teacher, takes a similar hands-on approach to her sequence of courses
on Third World sustainable development at MIT, where, for homework, students
grind corn three different ways or make charcoal. One of her graduates whom I
profiled in the book, 23-year-old Jodie Wu, is now CEO of her own company,
Global Cycle Solutions, inTanzania.
Not every young person
will become another Steve Jobs, but the majority of our young people can learn
the skills required to bring more innovative approaches to whatever they do.
How parents and educators raise and teach the next generation could make all
the difference.
