The promise of the industrial revolution was progress, moving forward into the future.

“Large-scale education was not developed to motivate kids or to create scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system. Scale was more important than quality, just as it was for most industrialists.” Seth Godin

“If we are to continue to live for the future, and to make the chief work of the mind prediction and calculation, man must eventually become a parasitic appendage to a mass of clockwork.” Alan Watts

“We don’t need more of what schools produce when they’re working as designed.” Seth Godin

“When forced to comply, the smart kid plays along, the stupid one is punished, and neither of them produces much value as a result.” Seth Godin

“As soon as we associate reading a book with taking a test, we’ve missed the point.” Seth Godin

“This test is a test of lower order thinking for the lower order.” Professor Frederick J. Kelly on his invention, the multiple-choice test

“You’re handed the mould and told - fit into this.” Kate Tempest

“If failure is not an option, then neither is success.” Seth Godin

“To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.” Alan Watts

“Everything is pervaded by a fight between network and hierarchy.” Paul Mason, Postcapitalism

“There’s no doubt the ground will shift. The question is: when it does, will you be ready?” Seth Godin

“Education isn’t a problem until it serves as a buffer from the world and a refuge from the risk of failure.” Seth Godin

“We don’t need a human being standing next to us to lecture us on how to find the square root of a number or sharpen an axe.” Seth Godin

“We can teach people to make commitments, to overcome fear, to deal transparently, to initiate, and to plan a course. / We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate. / And just as important, it’s vital to acknowledge that we can unteach bravery and creativity and initiative. And that we have been teaching just that.” Seth Godin

“Culture changes to match the economy, and the other way around … The reason so many people grow up to look for a job is that the economy has needed people who would grow up to look for a job.” Seth Godin

“If culture is sufficient to establish what we eat and how we speak and ten thousand other societal norms, why isn’t it able to teach us goal setting and passion and curiosity and the ability to persuade?” Seth Godin

“Society has the resources and the skill (and thus the obligation) to reset cultural norms and to amplify them through schooling.” Seth Godin