‘We can reach more ambitions goals if we are given the latitude to set those goals for ourselves’
Sal Khan
This line from Sal Khan's book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined refers to the benefits of flexibility, freedom, and choice in education. The freedom to choose which path to take or which project to work on gives students more opportunities to dream. This extends beyond students and reminds me of this cartoon by Grant Snider:
I love this cartoon, and I think that it blends well with Sal Khan's sentiment. As 'adults,' we need to embrace the freedom we have to make our own hoops. Once we do that, we will naturally pursue more ambitious goals and be more zealous about our mission.
Now, imagine that during the course of your education you not only learned everything that Snider mentions in the cartoon, but that you also learned and practiced how to create your own hoops? What if that happened from day one of your education? I believe that this is what the future of education will look like, and that it will help develop the adaptable, flexible, creative and critical thinkers needed to solve the problems of the future.
But that doesn't mean we're off the hook. What can you do right now to create your own hoops and set more ambitious goals?