by Dr. Thomas Jefferson, Superintendent of Schools

Each year as part of our own required summer reading, the district leadership team selects a book from outside the field of education that we read together and discuss at our administrative retreat. This year that book was the New York Times and BusinessWeek bestseller, A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink.

Building on the work of Thomas Friedman and others, Pink draws a compelling portrait of the skill set our citizenry will need to develop in order to thrive in the global community of which we are now part. In the author’s words, the book describes a seismic, though as yet undetected, shift now under way in much of the advanced world. We are moving from an economy and society built on the logical, linear, computer-like capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.

In the chapter entitled “Abundance, Asia, and Automation,” Pink probes the changing landscape of the new marketplace. He argues that we are living in such an age of abundance (citing seemingly endless shopping malls above and beyond what is sold online) that even products as mundane as the toilet brush are now being competitively marketed for their sense of engineering and design, along with their discounted price. That chapter also cites Asia’s proliferation of graduates in high tech fields such as engineering and computer science. This emerging pool of highly skilled workers, many of whom are coming from societies with lower salary structures, is impacting the job opportunities available in our country. The automation Pink references is the broad range of software now available (tax preparation, routine legal work, and stock trading, to cite a few examples) which in many instances lowers the demand for professional services in those arenas.

In the remaining chapters Pink details a range of talents and attributes that will be valuable for our students to develop. Included among those skills is the ability to think across disciplines, apply principles of design to all types of problems, and to think creatively and critically. Much of what he recommends is closely aligned with what we’ve identified in the first goal of our strategic plan, that our entire curriculum will integrate core content knowledge with the critical thinking skills needed for success in the 21st century.

A long-standing discussion in Harvard, and many like communities, has been on how to find the optimal balance between a program of studies that offers strong basic skills and one that is more integrative and creative. In reality, both are essential. Arguably, one cannot fully develop critical thinking skills without strong basic skills. Conversely, teaching only rote knowledge and basic skills in the absence of higher level critical thinking abilities is not preparing our students for the world which awaits them.