Society and Schools Must Do More to Value the Intelligence of Everyday Workers

Education professor Mike Rose describes just how wonderfully intelligent and creative everyday people are in their everyday work. He challenges the idea that schools and formal academics represent the only kinds of valuable knowledge. Watch Rose describe the deftness of a skilled carpenter. Then, ask yourself how well your classrooms and teachers looked out for your talents and creativity beyond traditional academe. Imagine how our society might be transformed if we honored the variety and complexity of everyday brilliance.

And if you’ve never read his excellent collection of essays called Why School, I highly recommend it. Perhaps complemented with this poetic meditation on work by Walt Whitman.