Our Education System Is Failing Because It Is Doing Exactly What It Was Designed to Do!
Our best efforts at improving education have failed to improve the lives of children, or change society for the better. This is no accident: the current system ignores our deepest knowledge about how human beings thrive.
Being “smart” today is still about sorting kids based on how well they absorb and retain knowledge. We need education to reflect a different set of values: interdependence, community, diversity, and deep, dynamic learning.
We need it to align with human development, facilitate learning for different kinds of brains, and prepare young people for a changing society and evolving workplace.
Blending history and science with stories from inside, The Future of Smart is a must read for anyone concerned about the future of education.
A passionate advocate for transformation in our education system, Dr. Ulcca Hansen explains the disconnect between what we want for our children, and what education today provides.
Dr. Hansen is Chief Program Officer at Grantmakers for Education and has worked in the education field for two decades. Her personal experiences as an English-language learner and first-generation college student inform her perspective on what it means to provide an “equitable” education for every child and meaningfully engage communities in that effort.
The Future of Smart shows how we can build an education system to nurture the unique, human capabilities of each child, and lay the groundwork for a more equitable, just and humane future.
Best Indie Book Award Winner
Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist
Eric Hoffer Book Award Montaigne Medal Finalist for most thought provoking read
IPPY Gold Medal Winner (Independent Publisher Book Awards)
National Indie Excellence Awards Winner
Ulcca Joshi Hansen is a mother, educator, researcher and advocate whose two-and-a-half decade career has spanned classrooms, non-profit leadership, philanthropy and consulting. She is driven by a vision of education that attends to and supports the development of young people's humanity and creates learning experiences that help them realize their unique potential - the place where who they are and what the world needs intersect.
An internationally-recognized expert on educational transformation at the level of instruction, assessment, organizational design and policy systems, she brings a diverse set of experiences working with educators, funders, policymakers, researchers, legislators, business leaders and community advocates in the US and internationally. Her work is aimed at helping transform the foundational values of our educational, cultural and social systems, and building the capacity of educators, families, communities and advocates to work with young people toward new ways of being in the world. A two-time TED speaker, Ulcca holds a BA in Philosophy and German from Drew University and a certificate in early childhood and elementary education with a focus on special education. She earned her PhD from Oxford University and a JD from Harvard Law School. She has been recognized for her leadership as a Harry S. Truman Scholar; a British Marshall Scholar and a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Twitter: @ulcca
