Education Quote by Russell L. Ackoff

““Today, there are two worlds that use the word education with opposite meanings: One world consists of the schools and colleges (and even graduate schools) of our education complex, in which standardization prevails. In that world, an industrial training megastructure strives to turn out identical replicas of a product called “people educated for the twenty-first century.” The second is the world of information, knowledge, and wisdom, in which the real population of the world resides when not incarcerated in schools. In that world, learning takes place like it always did, and teaching consists of imparting one’s wisdom, among other things, to voluntary listeners.””

Russell L. Ackoff

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 2.4 out of 5 (4 ratings)

Education Fitness Knowledge Knowledge and wisdom

More by Russell L. Ackoff

Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

Managers who don't know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure.

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say "no" but none to say "yes."

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem…

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

“Contrary to the impression that the educational system promulgates, there are no absolute answers to questions; the correct answer to a question depends on the context in which it arises. For example, how much is 2 + 3? The answer depends on “two and three of what?” If we are speaking of 2 degrees Fahrenheit plus 3 degrees Celsius, the…

Russell L. Ackoff

Most corporate mission statements are worthless. They consist largely of pious platitudes such as: "We will hold ourselves to the highest standards of professionalism…

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

“Reality consists of sets of interacting problems, systems of problems we call “messes.” As previously noted, problems are abstractions extracted from reality by analysis. Therefore, education for practice should develop and apply methodology for dealing holistically with systems of problems. Because messes are complex, this requires an ability to cope with complexity. It is much easier to deal with complexity…

Russell L. Ackoff

“Those involved in the redesign process must know what they would do if they could do whatever they wanted. Such knowledge is essential if they are to set meaningful goals for the future. The outcome of such a design is idealized in the sense that the resulting system is ideal seeking, not ideal. It should be subject to continuous improvement…

Russell L. Ackoff

“Cizek came to Vienna [from Leitmeritz, a small town in Bohemia, then Austrian] when he was twenty [in 1885], and entered the Academy of Fine Arts. He lodged with a poor family, where, fortunately, there were children. These children saw him painting and drawing, and they wanted, as Cizek has so often related, “to play painter too.” Out of his…

Russell L. Ackoff

The future is better dealt with using assumptions than forecasts.

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

“One might wonder how on earth learning came to be seen primarily a result of teaching. Until quite recently, the world’s great teachers were understood to be people who had something fresh to say about something to people who were interested in hearing their message. Moses, Socrates, Aristotle, Jesus—these were people who had original insights, and people came from far…

Russell L. Ackoff

The more efficient you are at doing the wrong thing, the wronger you become. It is much better to do the right thing wronger…

Russell L. Ackoff

Image

Explore all 49 Russell L. Ackoff quotes

More Education quotes

I put myself in the student's place and remember the frustrations, doubts, determination, and desires I felt when I was going through the initial…

Ted Martinez

Image

For successful education there must always be a certain freshness in the knowledge dealt with. It must be either new in itself or invested with some novelty of application to the new world of new times. Knowledge does not keep any better than fish. You may be dealing with knowledge of the old species, with some old truth; but somehow…

Alfred North Whitehead

Where I grew up, learning was a collective activity. But when I got to school and tried to share learning with other students that…

Henry Giroux

Image

There's no authoritarian structure at Reed College, but the education is conservative. So what you have is a lot of students who are very…

Donald Miller

Image

“What's the best thing about being in college? Good teachers. They inspire you, they entertain you, and you end up learning a ton even…

Nicholas Sparks

Image

“If one has not a head of steel it will burst; if he has not within it a brain of liquid quicksilver, he will not obtain in it a looking-glass; if he has not a skin of tin he will not be able to endure the toil of education; if he has not leaden posteriors he will not be able…

Ioannes Amos Commenius

“let us not teach / what we have learned badly / and not profited by”

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle

Image

“It took me years to learn to sit at my desk for more than two minutes at a time, to put up with the solitude and the terror of failure, and the godawful silence and the white paper. And now that I can take it . . . now that I can finally do it . . . I'm really…

Erica Jong