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| The secret
heart of learning |
269 |
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How to program for
success in education as in business
Sometimes a great truth sears itself
into your brain.
Or one crisp sentence telegraphs a truism more
effectively than a thousand books.
Or you feel a mask has been whipped from shrouded eyes
- as you see something so simple you wonder why you've never seen it before.
And the simplest truths have emerged from every
success story we've analyzed for this book:
 The best systems in the world are
programmed to succeed.
Most current educational systems
are programmed to fail.
They're not programmed to fail everybody. But they
are programmed to fail a large percentage of students. In some cases up to 50 percent. And
whatever you program you'll generally achieve.
The world's airlines plan to land their planes with 100
percent safety every time. A one-in-a-million failure rate would rightly be regarded as a
tragedy.
The world's top car companies spend a fortune to reduce
their manufacturing fault-rates from 2 percent to 1 percent.
But most school systems actually expect and plan
for a reject rate that would send any business bankrupt.
Businesses use spell-checking computers so that every
letter they write can go out word-perfect. Accounting firms use electronic calculators and
computer programs to help make sure their clients' financial reports and tax returns are
100 percent accurate. Anyone in the real world who is learning a computer turns to a
friend for advice when stumped.
Contents Page Preface
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