The Foothold of the Educational Industry Revolution

The revolution in the education industry matters because the technological transformation of this sector is what is needed — and may indeed be indispensable — for the day when ordinary people, even the children of the poor, can access quality education at affordable cost. Without it, we will only see the children of the wealthy rise to prominence on the strength of their resource advantages.

Without an enabling technology that dramatically reduces the cost of personalized education, education will no longer serve as an equalizer of social inequality, but will instead become an amplifier of it.

The Chinese are exceptionally skilled with concepts. This is not in itself a flaw — it becomes a sickness only when taken to excess. In recent years, critiques of education and the introduction of new educational philosophies have been anything but lacking in lofty insights. Yet the technological revolution in the education industry that is most urgently needed today does not, at its root, spring from a new educational idea alone.

An industrial technological revolution is an enabler — specifically, a technological enabler. Regrettably, Chinese has no good equivalent term; strictly speaking, it lacks even the concept itself. I will elaborate further below.

The revolution in the education industry refers, concretely, to one or more education companies bringing new productivity through new technology.

Today, there is no shortage of people who identify the ills of education — indeed, there are many who not only identify those ills but offer sound methods and proposals as well. Yet no one has truly solved the problem by bringing a productivity revolution to education. To be honest, if someone were to write a book presenting a new perspective on education, that person would be admirable in their way, but it would not be enough for me to spend time reading it. There are only new terms; there are no genuinely new concepts.

Take the important concept of "personalized education." The concept itself is an ancient human ideal regarding education. Who does not want education optimized to the individual? Who would not wish to hire the world's finest teacher — one-on-one, focused entirely on their child — to accompany, guide, inspire, and instruct? Who does not hope to be the most loving, patient, and childlike-in-spirit parent, nurturing their child to learn and grow in joy?

But this is not reality.

Let me use the parable of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains — turning its moral on its head — to illustrate. The old man set out to move a mountain, an undertaking of immense difficulty, and so people came to help. The first came, made an objective and scientific analysis, identified the problems with the old man's approach, and published a paper on the matter. The second came, made the same analysis, went further to propose an improved plan, advised the old man on how to use his tools most effectively and how best to organize the work, and likewise wrote a paper. The third came, performed all the analysis the first two had done, and then joined the old man in his labor, working alongside him to move the mountain, putting theory into practice and refining it through practice — and therefore had no time to write a paper.

This third person deserves genuine admiration and is exactly the kind of person society needs today.

But what the education industry needs today is not the first person, nor the second, nor even the third!

There is a fourth person. He came and did everything the first three had done, but after trying, he discovered that the third person's approach — though the most substantive — still could not solve the problem. So, confronted with the difficulty, this fourth person reconsidered from the ground up, and ultimately invented and built a system using explosives and machinery. Together with the old man, he accomplished the formidable task of moving the mountain.

The people and companies who bring about a revolution in the education industry are this fourth person. It is not merely a revolution in ideas; more importantly, it is a revolution in productivity. This is what is meant by an "enabler." It cannot remain at the level of online education and digitized education as they currently exist.

The innovations that have already become widespread — digitization of textbooks and classrooms — do not represent a genuine revolution in productivity. The revolution that needs to happen is a technological revolution in teaching — the intelligentization of instruction — an objective revolution in productivity, not a policy-driven revolution imposed by human fiat. If someone writes a book and shares lofty insights about education, yet no new productivity enabler is to be found within it, that person falls short of even the third figure above. Such a person would do better to set everything aside, participate in the community, contribute resources and effort, and take the third person as their model.

I am a Christian. I always remember a parable someone told me years ago. A man had the misfortune of falling into a pit and could not get out. A Muslim teacher came by, declared decisively that the pit was extremely dangerous and must be filled in immediately. A Buddhist came by, and inwardly reflected that this man must have committed sins in a previous life to deserve such a fate. A Taoist came by and advised the man in the pit that he should expand his inner horizons within his narrow confines in order to attain transcendence. A Hindu came by and told the man that the pit existed only in his perception. An optimist came by and encouraged the man, saying how fortunate he was not to have died in the fall, and that he must not give up — surely someone would come to rescue him one day. A pessimist came by and