Book Share: Education Nation

Daily Resource / November 30th, 2022

There was a point reading Education Nation where all I could think about was Spring/Fall 2020. Milton Chen wrote Education Nation over a decade ago when many of the ideas he espoused (personalized learning, technology driven learning, blended learning) were radical. In fact he points, like Sir Ken Robinson, to the idea that ‘alternative’ schools should be the norm; meaning skills based, deep learning based instruction should take the place of traditional teacher as lecturer instruction. I would like to think that these radical ideas are now normalized and used nationwide to create the titular ‘Education Nation’. However, one lesson I took away in Spring/Fall 2020 was we are working to build our capacity for these ideals, but we are not quite there yet. The book ends on a optimistic note by examining what a potential future would look like where the practices he discusses are integrated into schools. Although that optimistic chapter was based in the 2020 school year, I agree that the picture he creates is one that educators are working towards and building capacity for. Check out the book in the link in the picture.