Instead of legions of identically-trained graduates, pumped out as from an assembly line, we need a common base, with individualized specialization atop it, and garnished with independent and critical thinking, self-management, time management, tolerance for risk and ambiguity, and above all the ability to communicate and to sell oneself. Hiring a new graduate these days means having to train out much of his / her schooling, and then train in the qualities that make for a valuable employee.

Neither conservatives nor liberals get it yet, but the economic crisis is masking an economic transformation away from large, top-down organizations toward smaller, more specialized, locally-controlled organizations. I expect a lot of pain as everything that used to work in business fails. Likewise, there will be a lot of pain in education as local business leaders become ever more critical of the “output” of the traditional school system.