Transforming Education
A Whole System Approach to Empowering Young People and
Achieving Sustainable Society
Frank Dixon
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Introduction
Protecting children and future generations is the primary obligation of humanity. Providing outstanding education is one of the most important aspects of this. It broadly benefits society, in large part by empowering children, teenagers and young adults to live successful, fulfilling lives.
The United States education system fails on this most important obligation. It severely degrades young people and society. Academic performance is not the most important output of education. Young people forget much of what they learn in K-12 education. But this usually has little impact on their ability to succeed in life.
The most important qualities needed for life success include high self-esteem, strong social and emotional skills, critical thinking ability, and empowerment to build one’s life around their unique skills and passions. The forced education system, with its competitive grading and standardized curriculums, suppresses these qualities, and thereby severely inhibits young people’s ability to prosper in life.
COVID-19 substantially disrupted K-12 and higher education. But there were deep, fundamental problems in US education before the pandemic. This book analyzes these problems and describes how to evolve education systems into empowering, sustainable forms. Many US examples are given. But the broader solutions presented here apply to nearly all countries.
Two main themes of this book are: education follows society and education creates society. Education follows society in the sense that it usually evolves to serve the goals of society. The US education system strongly reflects the US focus on economic growth, shareholder returns and business well-being. As the focus shifts to maximizing the well-being of all current and future citizens (i.e. abiding by the US Constitution), we will implement a substantially different education system. Education also creates society in the sense that it teaches young people how to think and act in the world they one day will control.
Transforming Education is part of the Global System Change book series. The books are based on whole system thinking. Human society reflects human thinking. All major aspects of society are connected. But considering everything at once is complex. As a result, we often study the economy, education system, and other parts of society without adequate reference to the whole system that contains them.
This reductionistic thinking produces flawed economic and political systems that cause unintended consequences, such as widespread environmental and social degradation. Reductionism is the root cause of all major challenges facing humanity. As Einstein said, resolving these challenges requires higher-level, whole system thinking. The Global System Change books use this thinking to provide systemic solutions for all major areas of society.
Transforming Education puts education in a whole system context. It uses whole system thinking to address root causes and provide effective education solutions. A whole system approach is essential because the most important causes of education decline lie outside the education area. As a result, Transforming Education often refers to other Global System Change book sections.
Focusing only on improving education will help, but not come close to establishing empowering, sustainable education. To illustrate, poverty is the main cause of poor education performance in the US, and has been for over 100 years. Education reform approaches implemented over the past 40 years usually did not adequately address this root cause. As a result, they failed to substantially improve education performance.
Another root cause of US education decline is the shifting focus of US society. As business control of government increased in the 1980s, the education reform movement was initiated. The stated goal was to improve education. But this was not the effectively measured and managed goal. Education ‘reform’ approaches were implemented that strongly benefited business and enhanced shareholder returns, but degraded young people, education and society. These include privatization, standardized testing, and many other processes discussed in this book.
Prior to the 1980s, the US was more broadly focused on promoting the general welfare of society. This contributed to the US being a world leader in K-12 and higher education in the 1950s and 1960s. From the 1930s to the 1970s, wages largely rose with economic growth. Those who benefited the most from society paid fair taxes. We had the largest middle class in the world. The Fairness Doctrine required media to present both sides of controversial issues (i.e. tell the truth).
However, beginning in the late 1970s, campaign finance laws largely were dismantled. Wealthy citizens and companies are now allowed to anonymously spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns. This gave them strong control of government and both major political parties. Largely as a result, nearly all economic and stock market growth since the 1980s has been concentrated at the top of society. Inflation-adjusted wages have been nearly flat for 40 years. Taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations were substantially reduced.
Business-controlled government removed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. Since then, media often provides dishonest, one-sided coverage that divides society into debating factions (i.e. conservatives and liberals). As the people are divided, they are conquered. They lose their ability to control government and ensure the public wealth is used to equally and fairly benefit of all citizens. Education follows society. The growing US focus on business well-being drove the implementation of an education system that strongly benefits business in the short-term.
Finland and other world education leaders use strong, well-funded public education and honored, well-compensated teachers and college professors to achieve world-leading performance. The US used this approach to achieve education leadership 60 years ago.
However, this proven strategy largely was abandoned under business-focused education reform. Vested interests misled citizens into thinking that privatizing and standardizing public education would improve education performance. But US performance relative to other developed countries substantially declined in several areas over the past 40 years.
This book discusses many strategies for improving K-12 and higher education. They could be segregated into two broad categories. First, reestablish US education leadership. And second, go beyond it. The first broad strategy largely involves reversing education reform. The purpose of education should be to benefit young people and society, not businesses and shareholder returns. The US should emulate world leaders and reestablish the systems that enabled us to be a global education leader long ago.
Once we reestablish strong public education and the dignity of the teaching profession, we should go beyond it. Modern education is a legacy of the Protestant Reformation and Industrial Revolution. The goals were and largely still are indoctrination and obedience training.
Competitive grading makes the large majority of students feel inadequate during 13 of the most formative years of their lives. Standardized curriculums often teach them that their unique interests and talents have little value. Forced education suppresses critical thinking, in part by emphasizing what to think instead of how to think. It conditions young people to not question injustices in society, such as business control of government, degradation of environmental life support systems, and unfair concentration of public wealth.
Forced education teaches young people to endure boring jobs and control by authorities for the rest of their lives. This perpetuates unjust, unsustainable economic and political systems and facilitates ever-increasing shareholder returns. But it severely degrades society and violates our primary obligation to protect children.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and several other US Founders said that a freethinking, well-educated population was essential for democracy. The US was born in the Age of Enlightenment and Reason. Rational thinking and science triumphed over irrational blind faith in dogma. Education reform benefited business, but degraded society. It is a main cause of the US entering a New Dark Age.
Suppressed wages and job benefits, and reduced job and retirement security since the 1980s, made life more difficult for many people and drove frustration and discontent. This combined with 40 years of suppressed critical thinking made citizens vulnerable to deception and division. Many people blindly believe deceptive media positions, rather than think for themselves. They often are manipulated into attacking false enemies (liberals, conservatives) and ignoring major problems (democracy decline, corporate welfare). The dumbing down of US society under education reform and deceptive media since the 1980s bloomed into the election of a grossly unqualified president, attack on the US Capitol, and degradation of democracy and fair elections.
A generation ago, logic usually was the entry point for public discussion and debate. People who made illogical or factually incorrect statements usually were ignored or dismissed. This enabled people to engage in the often difficult work of finding practical solutions within the realm of logic.
However, these logical conversations frequently threatened ever-increasing shareholder returns. As a result, vested interests and deceptive media often used irrational, emotional arguments to block logical conversation. Well-educated citizens would see through these deceptions and think for themselves. Dumbing down US education protected vested interests in the short-term and the unsustainable systems that benefit them. A Second Enlightenment is needed in the US and many other countries. This book describes how to implement an empowering, sustainable education system that strongly supports this Enlightenment.
Transforming Education introduces the concept of Freedom-Based Education. Going beyond current education requires transforming forced education into freedom-based education. Young people should not be ranked against each other and forced to study subjects they find boring and irrelevant. This degrades self-esteem, weakens social skills (by teaching them to see peers as obstacles to success), often causes them to think their unique skills and interests are worthless, and teaches them to seek external validation rather than trust their inner wisdom. Freedom-based education does the opposite. It strongly promotes the most important qualities needed for life success and achieves superior retention of important information.
As is the case in all of the Global System Change books, the purpose here is not to criticize business, political and education leaders. Flawed economic and political systems routinely compel well-intentioned leaders to take actions that harm society, such as putting shareholder returns ahead of the well-being of children. These systems, and the reductionistic thinking that created them, are the main enemies of education and society overall. The purpose here and in all the Global System Changebooks is to use whole system thinking to improve flawed education and other human systems.
Reductionistic economic and political systems do not hold companies fully responsible for negative environmental and social impacts. This unintentionally compels harm. If companies voluntarily try to stop harming the environment and society, costs increase and they ultimately go out of business. This is not sustainable. Destructive systems inevitably will change through voluntary or involuntary means. Throughout history, all flawed human systems changed, usually by collapsing quickly (e.g. American and French revolutions, end of US slavery and USSR communism).
Humanity almost certainly has entered another phase of rapid system change, as indicated by rapidly growing, often unprecedented environmental, social, economic and political problems (e.g. COVID-19, Ukraine invasion, Capitol attack, democracy decline, climate change). Improving flawed economic and political systems before they collapse is essential for protecting society. Empowering young people to think critically, logically and objectively will help to resolve major challenges and protect the long-term well-being of business and society.
Transforming Education facilitates system change by assessing and linking all major education areas. A whole system approach places education in the context of larger environmental, social, economic and political systems. Complex issues are summarized in easy to understand terms. With over 700 endnotes, Transforming Education serves as a comprehensive education reference book. The book discusses many problems and whole system solutions in K-12 and higher education, including the following.
The Education Funding section discusses the immense societal benefits of investing in public education and the poor academic performance and other problems caused by the inequitable US funding system. Students from low-income communities usually require greater support in school. The majority of developed countries provide more funding for disadvantaged students. The US is one of only three developed countries that provide less. This strongly contributes to poor academic performance in low-income community schools.
The Privatization section discusses how public deception and business influence of government drove extensive privatization of US public schools and degradation of US education. Issues discussed include No Child Left Behind and other education reform laws, degrading the teaching profession through the Teach for America program and other means, and lack of accountability and other problems with charter and private schools. The section describes how a false crisis was manufactured in US education to justify privatization.
The Public Funding of Religion section discusses problems with this type of education funding, including lack of accountability, discrimination, increased taxes, degradation of public education, and lack of public support. The US Founders strongly opposed taxpayer funding of religious education. Separation of church and state is established in the US Constitution. Thirty-six state constitutions prohibit public funding of religion. Nearly every public referendum on the subject opposed it. However, business influence of judicial appointments contributed to legal decisions that allow taxpayer funding of religious education, for example, through vouchers and tax credits. As a result, taxpayers of one religion are being forced to pay to teach religions that are different than their own. Some Christian textbooks teach that God created the world 6,000 years ago, gay people are equivalent to rapists, and the purpose of environmentalism is to destroy the economy. Citizens should not be forced to pay to teach children these irrational and harmful ideas.
The Business Influence of Education section discusses growing business influence of K-12 and higher education over the past 40 years. Privatizing public education was seen as a good business opportunity for the corporate and financial sectors. As a result, politicians who accepted money from education and other companies strongly promoted privatization. Reduced public funding compelled many K-12 schools and universities to seek private funding and support. This enabled companies to place advertising in schools, restrict teaching of climate change and other subjects that threaten shareholder returns, and suppress academic research that shows corporate products to be harmful.
The Authoritarianism section discusses growing authoritarianism in US education and society. This protects vested interests by suppressing logical freethinking. Authoritarianism makes it easier to divide and disempower citizens, concentrate wealth, and perpetuate unjust, harmful systems. Issues discussed include zero-tolerance discipline, standardized testing, surveillance, drug testing, incarceration, compiling student databases, declining liberal arts, student debt, screen viewing, religious fundamentalism, attacking intellectuals, and public deception.
The Hitting Children section discusses the extremely harmful nature of hitting children and other forms of physical punishment. Over 100 countries prohibit hitting children in schools. Thirty-two countries prohibit it in all settings, including homes. However, all 50 US states allow parents to hit their children. Nineteen states allow hitting in schools. Over 60 percent of US families physically punish their children. Overwhelming research shows that hitting children often causes severe mental health problems. Hitting is prohibited in prisons and nearly all other settings in the US. The only people we allow to be hit are those who are the smallest, weakest, most vulnerable and defenseless, least likely to understand why they are being hit, most likely to be severely psychologically harmed by hitting, and the ones we say we love the most. This is absurd. Children should receive the most protection from hitting, not the least. This section discusses the severe harm caused by hitting, rationalizations use to justify it, religious influence, parental self-awareness and control, more effective forms of discipline, and how other countries transitioned to prohibition of physical punishment.
The Competitive Grading section discusses the harmful nature of competitive grading and suggests more effective and empowering assessment alternatives. Competitive grading degrades the most important qualities needed for life success to measure less important factors (i.e. academic performance). It suppresses the motivation to learn, creates innately adversarial relationships between teachers and students, and shifts the focus of education from learning to judgment. As discussed throughout the Global System Change books, the overwhelming force in nature is cooperation. To survive and prosper, humanity must substantially increase cooperation in society. Competitive grading teaches young people competition. This facilitates authoritarianism and perpetuates unjust systems. Issues discussed in this section include self-esteem, social skills, motivation, productivity, teacher-student relationships, suppression of minorities, and effective student assessment.
The Boredom section discusses widespread boredom in US education and the many problems this causes. Humans evolved to learn by freely doing what interests them. However, education systems in the US and many other countries are not based on how children learn most effectively. They are based on history. The classroom model of education was developed during the Protestant Reformation. Education was intended to break the will of children and teach dogma. The Industrial Revolution added standardization, centralization and passive worker compliance. Education reform increased boredom by emphasizing standardized curriculums and reducing fun and interesting activities, such as physical education, recess, music, art, shop and team sports. Children often are forced to sit passively in sterile environments for several hours per day listening to adults talk to them. Boring education conditions them to endure boring jobs for the rest of their lives.
The Psychiatric Drugs section provides a comprehensive discussion of psychiatric drugs, in large part because young people often are encouraged or compelled to take these drugs in school. The boring, judgmental, grossly flawed US education system inevitably produces large amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior and other psychological problems. The solution is not to drug children so they comply with the deeply flawed US education system. It is to fix the system. This section discusses the complexity of the mind, problems with the current method of diagnosing mental disorders, harm caused by widespread use of psychiatric drugs, factors driving high growth in psychiatric drug use, and alternative approaches for diagnosing and addressing psychological problems.
The Higher Education section discusses the many societal benefits of higher education, growing business influence, and related problems. Resolving major challenges requires objective, whole system thinking. Colleges and universities are main places where this can and should occur. Enlightened thinking often threatens vested interests. Growing business influence of higher education protects them by suppressing higher-level thinking. It also creates many other problems, including rapid tuition growth, high student debt, declining class mobility, bloated university administrations, expanding for-profit and online education, business influence of academic research, suppression of professors and critical thinking, and replacing true higher education with vocational education (i.e. courses that benefit business). This section suggests several higher education solutions, including fully funding public higher education, greatly reducing student debt, reducing business influence, ensuring independent academic research, reestablishing the dignity and independence of professors, and restoring true higher education.
Transforming Education concludes with a comprehensive Education Solutions section. The 38 solutions subsections describe many systemic and specific education solutions, including teach whole system thinking and cooperation, equitably fund public education, hold charter and private schools to the same standards as public schools, eliminate competitive grading, honor and empower teachers, prohibit physical punishment and compulsory psychiatric drug use, protect student privacy, provide daily physical education, and implement freedom-based education.
Whole system thinking is essential. Education follows society. The current education system nearly perfectly supports the primary focus of society – maximizing economic growth and shareholder returns. Shifting the focus to maximizing the well-being of all citizens, especially children, will shift the focus of education.
Much can be done under current economic and political systems to improve education. The solutions discussed in this book will strongly promote the freethinking, well-educated population the US Founders said was essential for democracy. Providing empowering, sustainable education will drive the evolution of human society and systems into sustainable forms and most effectively empower young people to live successful, satisfying lives.
About the Author
Frank Dixon, Harvard MBA, is a system change leader and pioneer. As the head of research for the largest corporate sustainability research firm (Innovest/MSCI), he saw that flawed economic and political systems compel all companies to degrade the environment and society. He wrote the Global System Change books to provide systemic solutions for all major areas of society, including education. The books model the whole system thinking that Einstein said was needed to resolve major challenges. Dixon advises investors, companies and governments, including Walmart and the US EPA. He has presented at many conferences and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT and Cambridge.