Stop Stealing Dreams

Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time, was made despite the school system’s efforts to beat the creativity out of director James Cameron.

Our school systems are so out of touch with what’s needed in our society, but also just with human nature.

In the words of Ken Robinson, the man behind the most watched TED talk of all time (here’s the complete list of most-watched TED talks):

Ask a class of first graders which of them thinks they’re creative and they’ll all put their hands up. Ask a group of college seniors this same question and most of them won’t. I believe passionately that we are all born with tremendous natural capacities, and that we lose touch with many of them as we spend more time in the world. Ironically, one of the main reasons this happens is education.”

All of these amazing resources are wasted because we as a society don’t know how to identify them and nurture them. Like Ken Robinson, I believe that there’s something that each of us are especially good at doing that’s also energizing and joyful for us to do, and valuable to other people. That sweet spot where we’re at the same time most fulfilled and most productive.

Imagine if we, as a society, could help each individual discover and nuture and develop that sweet spot. Imagine how happy and productive we would be as a society. Imagine what would happen to our national output, to health care costs, to the use of anti-depressants, to the use of stimulants like sugar, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, fat, to business, to politics.

[Come to think of it, it would probably cost a lot of powerful companies and individuals dearly in lost income, lost fortunes, and lost power. It would surely shake things up in a big way. About time, I say.]

Because education is so out of touch with reality, this latest project by Seth Godin - Stop Stealing Dreams - is so critically important. We need schools to stop stealing the dreams of our children, and start to encourage them to dream big and change the world. The world needs the change, badly.

Go check out Stop Stealing Dreams now. It’s free, and available in all of the formats you could possibly want.

And do pass it on.