{"id":18428,"date":"2026-05-27T13:10:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=18428"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:10:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:10:41","slug":"revolutionize-schooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/27\/revolutionize-schooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I\u2019m Skeptical About Efforts to Revolutionize Schooling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2028Being the guy who wrote a book called Ultralearning<\/a>, I get asked a lot of questions about what I think schools should be doing better.\u2028\u2028Having never taught in a classroom or worked for even a single day in education, it\u2019s a question I\u2019m totally unqualified to answer. It\u2019s a bit like asking a guy to reform an entire health care system because he\u2019s good at lifting weights.<\/p>\n

But being totally unqualified has never stopped me before, so I\u2019ll try to explain the answer I typically give to this question, which is that I\u2019m skeptical of dramatic proposals to make school considerably more effective or efficient for the average student.<\/p>\n

To be clear, that\u2019s not because no improvement is possible. We do know some about things that work that are inconsistently applied: phonics<\/a> should be taught, cognitive load<\/a> should be managed, skills should be fully taught<\/a> and practice<\/a> should be fun and ample.<\/p>\n

But these answers aren\u2019t the kind that satisfy the people who ask me these questions. Instead, having had many of these conversations, I feel like the person asking already \u201cknows\u201d what my response should be:<\/p>\n

\n

Isn\u2019t it obvious that school sucks?<\/em> That we should be teaching critical thinking and problem-solving skills instead of useless facts and theories? That school should be more like real life, with real-world projects and experiments and collaboration? That there should be less of that stuffy work of sitting in a desk and memorizing things?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you had asked me this question years ago, I probably would have agreed with you. It took reading a lot of research to convince me that this intuitively appealing idea is actually bad. Below, I’d like to explain why.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

First, the Evidence<\/h2>\n

Before I get into the explanation of why these kinds of seemingly-good strategies don\u2019t work, I should begin by pointing out that these ideas are not new. They have been tried, and they have been found wanting.<\/p>\n

Entire books have been written pointing out the flaws in many of these strategies. I won\u2019t be able to do the full debate justice here, but, if you\u2019re interested, you can check out Daniel Willingham\u2019s Why Don\u2019t Students Like School?<\/a> Greg Ashman\u2019s The Power of Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction<\/a> or, if you want to learn more about the actual debate between proponents of both sides, try Constructivist Instruction: Success or Failure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To briefly recap some of the evidence:<\/p>\n