Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day,
but teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
Nowhere is that proverb more true than today's educational system.
Today, we are exposing kids to life, but not teaching them how to live it.
We're giving them information, but not teaching them how to use it.
We're giving them the "what", but not teaching them the "why".
John Gardner agreed with me:
"Much education today is monumentally ineffective.
All too often we are giving young peeople cut flowers,
when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants".
We should be teaching them to fish.
Now, what makes me feel qualified to talk about this?
I sure as hell don't speak from an ivory tower.
I speak from here. This is where I grew up.
This is a trailer with a 6 foot by 7 foot addition that was my bedroom.
And what you can't see beyond there is a junkyard.
That's where I grew up, in a trailer, in a junkyard.
Make all your jokes now.
(Laughter)
But it wasn't all bad.
I was voted smartest kid in my fourth-grade class.
Two out of three years.
(Laughter)
But I had to teach myself how to fish.
This is today's educational system.
We are taking grade-school kids in at the bottom,
and teaching them the basics: reading, writing and arithmetic.
By the way, a little pet peeve of mine,
who the hell's bright idea was it to call those the three R's?
(Laughter)
As they get older, we expose them to more and more things.
And by the time they're in high school,
hopefully, we've exposed them to enough
that they can make some decisions on what they want to be.
The problem is study, after study, after study
tells us kids learn better when they're younger.
I know that was definetely the case with me.
In third grade, we had to take a half an hour of Spanish once a week.
We had to take a half an hour of sign language once a week.
And in high school, I took an hour of French everyday, for two years.
That's twenty hours of sign language,
twenty hours of Spanish and 400 hours of French.
What do you think I'm more fluent in?
See...
(Laughter)
How about, instead, we take that triangle and turn it upside down,
and give kids a strong foundation by exposing them to things
when they're young, before their prejudices can set in?
Before they can say: "Science isn't cool, Math isn't cool,
Art isn't cool."
They love this stuff when they're young, but as they get older,
society tells them it's not a good thing to do.
So, if we can expose that to them when they're young,
they'll say: "Well, I'm interested in this; I'm not interested in that.
I'm good at that; I suck at this, so I'm going to avoid these things."
And by the time they get up to high school,
they've got a much better idea of what they want to do,
because they're focused.
And if we can help them focus, maybe we can increase this number.
My second idea -- this isn't a real program,
I just invented it on my couch within the last couple of weeks --
Learn & Earn in Michigan.
I think the numbers work that...
they say that Michigan could say, "We are going to pay anybody's tuition.
Books and tuition.
In exchange, you'll live and work here for two years."
The taxes from those hiping jobs would more than make up
for any tuition outlay from the government.
And, by the time they get down with four years of college
and eight years of payback, they'll be thirty years old.
They'll have a house, a spouse and 2.3 kids.
They will be here to stay,
and so will the businesses that are attracted by educated people.
One half who graduate from college never read another book.
That's an amazing statistic
and it was true, and it's still true to a large degree.
But, thirty years ago, that was ok.
Thirty years ago, the shelf life of a college education
was 15 to 25 years, which meant whatever you learned
wouldn't become outdated for at least 20 years.
The shelf life of a college education now is 18 to 24 months,
which means whatever you're learning today
you'll probably have to relearn in a couple of years,
because the rate of change is increasing.
So, colleges need to have a little more flexibility,
they need to faster to the draw,
and use a little bit of what I call "junkyard math".
Four equals one.
Instead of a four-year degree, we do a one-year degree.
I mean, if you take the first two years of a college degree,
it's pretty much basics anyway.
It's the three R's you should have learned ten years ago.
And this another year full of electives,
underwater basket weaving and poetry history.
Take those away, and you've got
12 to 18 months worth of valid focused classes.
Now, I'm not talking about learning for the sake of learning.
I'm talking about learning for the sake of earning.
Before I get insulted by all the educators out there,
let it be known that the world is changing.
Instead of a four-year student, you can now have an eight to twelve-year student,
because people change careers 6 to 8 times during their life.
And they can come back to you, they need somebody to train them.
The "top 10" jobs today weren't even invented ten years ago.
And that's going to continue.
And somebody's got to educate them.
So, instead of your revenue being cut by 75%,
from a four-year degree to a one-year degree,
it can be doubled or even tripled.
I'm sure the educators will love that.
Thomas Jefferson said every generation needs a new revolution.
This can be our revolution.
Fixing the educational system can be our revolution.
We can teach the youth of today how to live in the world of tomorrow.
We can not only give them the "what", we can teach them the "why".
All we need to do is teach them to fish.
"Gracias". Thank you.
(Applause)