Prensky argues that too much time is being spent trying to fix the educational “system,” and hardly any is being spent on fixing the education the system provides—particularly for the future. Prensky is convinced that, with our present course, all the momentum and money now available will be just thrown away and lost, and, when it is all spent, we shall end up with an educational system that is incapable of preparing the bulk of our students for the 21st century.
The reason so much time and money is being wasted, argues Prensky, is that virtually all of the educational improvement efforts now in place are aimed at bringing back, and attempting to make successful the education that America offered students in the 20th century (occasionally with technological enhancements). Sadly, too many people assume this is still the right education for today—although it no longer works for most of our students. Practically no effort is being made, despite the many educational projects and programs now being funded and offered, to create and implement a better, more future-oriented education for all of our kids; an education that will enable them to deal with the issues and realities they will face in the 21st century. (Talk is based on a widely circulated article.)
