How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

“One day, a burro fell into a well,” Juárez Correa began. “It wasn’t hurt, but it couldn’t get out. The burro’s owner decided that the aged beast wasn’t worth saving, and since the well was dry, he would just bury both. He began to shovel clods of earth into the well. The burro cried out, but the man kept shoveling. Eventually, the burro fell silent. The man assumed the animal was dead, so he was amazed when, after a lot of shoveling, the burro leaped out of the well. It had shaken off each clump of dirt and stepped up the steadily rising mound until it was able to jump out.”

Juárez Correa looked at his class. “We are like that burro,” he said. “Everything that is thrown at us is an opportunity to rise out of the well we are in.”

Take a look at this inspiring Wired article by Joshua Davis that describes some pretty amazing teaching methods.  

Davis wrote two other articles that we love, "The Stalking of Korean Hip Hop Superstar Daniel Lee," and "La Vida Robot,"the amazing story of how four high schoolers took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championships. (Yes, there are national underwater bot championships.)

Fans of "La Vida Robot" will be happy to know that it’s now being made into a movie.