I recently read the Forbes “30 Under 30” for Education, and felt myself feeling very uneasy that there was not one practicing educator in the group. I wasn’t the only one:
Hey, Forbes. Saying that you know as much about education as a brick is an insult to bricks. Out of your 30 “Brightest Stars in Education under 30” I counted 0 practicing teachers. The fact that you believe that a bunch of CEOs of education companies, founders of political action groups, and COOs of edtech companies are the rising stars in education just goes to show how misplaced our education priorities are in this country.
The more you (and we) make education about making money and not about learning, they more we give our kids the shaft.
I’ll wager you this, Forbes. Ask any successful kid, parent, adult, CEO, whatever who the biggest star in their education was. Every time they answer with a CEO, COO, or Founder of a political organization, I’ll give you a buck. Every time they answer with a teacher’s name I get a buck.
Who do you think’ll be making out in that deal? – Michael Soskil from his Facebook page
Now I know that Forbes is an organization that focuses on business and is known for highlighting billionaires more than anything, but I think the title was misleading. I read articles from Forbes all of the time because I think that if you want to be better in education, you should be looking at all places, not simply in education.
If it was focused on “Education Startups” it would have been a different story, and honestly I have no problem with people making money. We are promoting innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in schools so I have no issue with people that embody those things, no matter the field. I also believe that many, if not all of the people, on that list are doing something that they deem as important.
But I also believe that some of those “startups” are taking what they knew from their time in school, and creating technologies that support practices that many are trying to move away from, yet they are seen as leading education because they are making, or have the potential to make, lots of money?
What do you think?
