Page 230 - The Drucker Lectures

From Teaching to Learning [ 211

good teachers, but we will have to develop something that his-
torically we’ve paid no attention to: good learners. Historically,
for the great mass of students, we aimed at minimum skills, very
low skills, skills so that they were not disadvantaged.
In a knowledge society, education has to be the way for ev-
eryone to find what he or she can excel in—to set a standard and
not just meet it. And that means a different school, and not in its
class size. The new technology makes larger classes more pro-
ductive. And there is almost no evidence for the idea that small
classes give better results unless the class is very, very small. But
once you have 15, it makes no difference anymore. And in order
to have enough excitement in the class you probably need larger
classes. Small classes are dull; there’s not enough variety, diver-
sity, not enough mutual stimulation. I think the present empha-
sis on small classes is a misunderstanding.
The school of the future will be different from the school of
yesterday not just because we will expect most of the students
to have one area of achievement, and not just a general univer-
sal mediocrity, but because its emphasis will have shifted from
teaching to learning.

From a speech delivered at a “School of the Future” conference, sponsored by
the accounting firm Arthur Andersen.