I certainly enjoyed Dr. Pink’s book, as well as Sir Ken – but I’m not sure that Right brains are ALL that will be necessary in the future.
During our attempts to reform, we should pay attention to what has worked well in the past, keep it, and replace what has not worked well in the past. Oh, and this should happen at a faster pace than it has in the past 150 years.

M Burroughs, in the response above, mentions letting children be children. I recently was able to spend some time with Marsha Tate, of “Shouting won’t grow Dendrites” fame and she echoed this sentiment. Having a wide range of children in my home, I selfishly spent the time with her asking what my wife and I could do specifically to increase any chances of our then 4-year-old’s chances for academic success. She said, “Let him do what he wants to do naturally, which is to play.”

So often in the past we have stripped out the extracurricular in favor of more time in the core. In the movie, Two Million Minutes, I felt a sense of urgency to get all of our children to focus on science, math, and technology because we were having a shortage of engineers in the U.S. Then it occurred to me, since when are engineers the holy grail of society?

It takes all types of brains to make a diverse society… Lefty’s as well as Righty’s (as well as the in-between.) In our reform, we should be careful to design a reform that fosters all and doesn’t favor one side over the other. As Malcolm Gladwell said during a question and answer session once, the kid who can give you 50 different ways to use a brick but scores low on the entrance exam deserves the same opportunity at college as the one who aces the entrance exams.

How about just letting children be children? Children are hard-wired to learn through play. Allocating more unstructured play during a school day has several advantages:

1. Teamwork and social skills are strengthened.
2. Problem-solving skills develop.
3. Physical exercise takes place naturally.
4. Disruptive behavior is minimized.

Sometimes we adults forget that children are just that: children. If we just lighten up, everything will work out.