Best 8 quotes of Tony Wagner on MyQuotes

Excellent instruction is less about what a teacher does and more about what students can do and know as a result of the lesson.

The capacity to innovate - the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life - and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge.

Today knowledge is free. It's like air, it's like water... There's no competitive advantage to knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn't care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.

If college admissions officers are going to encourage kids to take the same AP math class, why not statistics? Almost every career (whether in business, nonprofits, academics, law, or medicine benefits from proficiency in statistics. Being an informed, responsible citizen requires a sound knowledge of statistics, as politicians, reporters, and bloggers all rely on "data" to justify positions. [p.98]

In today’s world, if you can’t invent and reinvent your own job and distinctive skills, you risk chronic underemployment. Individuals need to change professions several times in their lifetime. Page 63

Students spend their school hours bored, covering irrelevant material, doing mindless tasks, taking far too many standardized tests, and having the creativity and innovation schooled out of them. Our focus shouldn't be to give all kids equal access to the same bad education. We need to reinvent education and give all kids a fighting chance in life. page 58

Students were asked only factual recall questions and then given a writing assignment that was, in my opinion, more suited to an elementary school class. They were not asked for their interpretations of the story. They were not asked to discuss a real moral dilemma in their lives and compare it to the one in the story. And they were not asked to write an essay where they would have to analyze a theme of an idea using supporting evidence. In other words, there was no intellectual rigor. Chapter 1

While at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Tony found himself to be a complete outlier. He was almost constantly at odds with the mainstream of education. He is the first to admit that a doctorate from Harvard is important largely because everyone thinks it’s important. Page 3