Twelve years ago Will Richardson published Why School?, a short but incredibly impactful ebook that has strongly influenced my own thinking about learning, teaching, and schooling. Published by the folks who run the TED conferences, it contained gems like:

What doesn’t work any longer is our education system’s stubborn focus on delivering a curriculum that’s growing increasingly irrelevant to today’s kids, the outmoded standardized assessments we use in an attempt to measure our success, and the command-and-control thinking that is wielded over the entire process. All of that must be rethought. Now.

AND

In this new narrative, learning ceases to focus on consuming information or knowledge that’s no longer scarce. Instead, it’s about asking questions, working with others to find the answers, doing real work for real audiences, and adding to, not simply taking from, the storehouse of knowledge that the Web is becoming. It’s about developing the kinds of habits and dispositions that deep, lifelong learners need to succeed in a world rife with information and connections. The emphasis shifts from content mastery to learning mastery.

The Why School? ebook was only available as a Kindle version but disappeared from Amazon a while back. Will posted recently that he regained the copyright and that it now can be downloaded for free. I am greatly appreciative of Will’s willingness to reshare it with the world again.

Here is the link to download the book as a PDF. If you haven’t read much of Will’s work before, or if it’s been a long time since you have, you’re in for a real treat.

Happy reading!