Would you like to become an innovator?
I think we can accept that innovation is one of the most essential real-world skills in today’s society. That is why the need for cultivating creativity and innovation in young people became an important factor. To achieve success in college and the labor market, many scholars agree that students need to be creative to dream big and to be capable of putting their dreams in action.
The question is what young people need from parents, teachers, and employers to become real innovators. With this important matter deals Tony Wagner, who is the writer of the book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World”. His main concept is that developing an innovation-driven economy is necessary. Also, focusing on a more progressive skill building for preparing students for life beyond the classroom is crucial.
The author himself states, “This book is about how we can develop the abilities of many young people to become creative and enterprising. It investigates the new challenge of growing, learning, and guiding young people so that they become the innovators our country and our planet need to thrive in the 21st century. “
But the writer also points out that even though focusing on innovation and creativity is necessary, there are problems with the idea because „most policymakers — and many school administrators — have no idea what kind of instruction is required to produce students who can think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, and collaborate versus merely score well on a test. They are also clueless about what kind of teaching best motivates this generation to learn.”
The research conducted by the author presents life stories of young innovators, which provide answers to questions such as: What kind of education can help today’s children to succeed in the age of information and innovation? How can you encourage the creativity of young employees? How can parents cultivate the curiosity and inventiveness of their little ones?.
In profiling young American innovators such as Kirk Phelps, a high school and a college dropout, who became the product manager for Apple’s first iPhone, and Jodie Wu, who founded a company which develops and sells bicycle add-ons to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in Tanzania, Wagner reveals how adults helped them to give birth to their creativity and to challenge their imagination, meanwhile learning from failure and learning to persevere. Furthermore, he identifies a pattern which is that people with a childhood of creative play tend to have a deeper purpose for career and life goals in adulthood. That is play, passion, and purpose: these are the forces that determine young innovators. Also, he argues that early educational coaching and motivational mentorship can facilitate success in today’s competitive marketplace.
The writer also discusses what works and what does not work for promoting innovation in schools by presenting some dualities which are individual achievement-collaboration, specialization-multidisciplinary learning, risk avoidance-trial and error, consuming-creating, and extrinsic-intrinsic motivation. Of course, Wagner opts for the latter from each pair of duality.
Wagner then looks more closely at the education system and shows how we can apply this knowledge as educators and what parents can do to compensate for not adequate schooling. He also states that it is important to focus less on industrial modes of production, for example, to refocus away from standardized tests.
In his book, Tony Wagner presents schools, colleges, and jobs in the country, where cultures of innovation based on collaboration, interdisciplinary problem solving, and intrinsic motivation are developed.
His motive was: “I tried to understand what skills are needed for successful innovation and why they are important for our future.”
This book by Tony Wagner itself is innovative because noted director Bob Compton, who teamed up with Tony to make “The Phenomenon of Finland,” produced more than 60 original videos that expand on key ideas and passages from the book through interviews with young innovators, their parents, teachers, mentors and senior executives at some of the world’s most innovative companies. The videos are accessible via links and QR codes placed throughout the eBook text or by visiting www.creatinginnovators.com.
Overall, this book has an excellent premise, it arises crucial questions that could be further thought, like do we need schools anymore, how should we learn and what are the skills and competencies that are necessary for succeeding in an innovative society. But we could agree if only a part of Wagner’s suggestions would become realized or implemented students would benefit a lot more than they do today.
