Dan Meyer gives teaching insights @ Ted.

Dan is a math teacher and he loves teaching. I guess that's really enough of a reason why parents and the society at large should be thankful for having thought leaders like him in generation building. Albeit it may be for selfish reasons which he so candidly pointed out, "I'll be retiring in a world which these kids will be running". Yea man, if I were him, I would be more careful of the knowledge which I will be imparting to these young people too.

Also, what I could so resonate with him is the following slide:

He said, students these days come installed with these 5 viruses. I say, "No Dan. A lot of people are infected".

Just take a look at our industry. How do you think the young advertising professionals will score? Sixteen year olds are cute. Early 20s can still cut it. Anything over 25 is not. C'mon really! In some countries, they're ripe for parenthood!

I think what Dan Meyer pointed out was the fact that we're all jumping the gun, too eager for solutions. We do not look at the situation and try to formulate the problem and then consider the solutions. We're so eager to get into the 'cheat sheet' - what has worked before? And try to formulate solutions based on the check list. Doesn't it sound familiar to you? As I commented: No wonder Originality is dead. Apparently Rule pushed him over the cliff.

Note: If you are an aspiring planner and you find it hard to understand why your Planning Director is taking certain routes and extra hard to well, copy. Don't. His formula may be the right one for obvious reasons. But no one said it was the best one (but it could be too for also obvious reasons). The important thing is for you to attempt the challenge first then get help second. Problem formulation is more important than problem solving. And that skill comes from practice. From Occam's Razor: Always address the why before the how.

Double note: Oh teachers of Malaysia! Utilize social and multimedia! Take your classroom 'out' without physically taking them out! :) Get inspired here.