Author, Educator, and Harvard Fellow Dr. Tony Wagner Inspires Faculty

A simple tweet into the digital galaxy by New Hampton School math teacher Brian Sullivan encapsulated the inspiration that Dr. Tony Wagner brought to the New Hampton School faculty on Friday.

"Can't stop thinking about how to reshape my course," tweeted Sullivan, "Great session with Dr. Tony Wagner." 

After a week of opening meetings, Wagner — an author, fellow at Harvard, and a sought-after speaker — brought the message of his most recent book Creating Innovators to central New Hampshire on the final day of a week of meetings. Wagner challenged the faculty to think about education in a different way, placing an emphasis on preparing students for a job landscape that is no longer asking for repetition.

"Businesses want employees who identify problems as much as they want problem solvers," Wagner explained.

Wagner stressed the importance of becoming an innovation-driven economy as opposed to a consumer-driven economy, and laid out the seven survival skills that students will need for college, career, and citizenship:

1. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
2. Collaboration Across Networks and Leading By Influence
3. Agility and Adaptability
4. Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
5. Effective Oral and Written Communication
6. Accessing and Analyzing Information
7. Curiosity and Imagination

Wagner believes that teaching for the test is crippling the opportunity that teachers might have to induce healthy risk-taking in the classroom. He noted that Google allows its employees to dedicate 20 percent of their work time to whatever they want. Numerous NHS teachers pondered how they could bring similar learning opportunity to their own classrooms while maintaining structure.

In the end, Wagner questioned the current educational delivery model of "sittin' and gettin'" and challenged the NHS faculty to think about finding ways to inspire innovation and engage the "muscles of concentration" in their students. Before opening up the floor for a spirited Q and A, Wagner  left with the idea that the necessary foundation that all students need is built upon three pillars: content knowledge, skills,  intrinsic motivation.

Click here for a complete stream of tweets by NHS Faculty from the talk.