So says Laszlo Bock, the guy in charge of hiring at Google.

Parents, you may want to hide this blog post from your kids because Laszlo goes on to note that “the proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time – now as high as 14 percent on some teams.”

Five Qualities
OK, that’s still not a very high proportion, and Google still looks for good grades in jobs that require math, computing and coding skills. But Google uses complex interview techniques to test for five other qualities that aren’t necessarily associated with good grades.

1. Leadership (especially in team problem-solving)
2. Humility
3. Collaboration
4. Adaptability
5. Loving to learn and re-learn.

The least important attribute they look for is “expertise” because they believe if people have these five qualities, they will be able not only to solve most everyday problems in most areas, but they will also pioneer new and innovative approaches.

Pros and Cons of College
Given the number of graduates he must interview every day, Bock’s assessment of college is sobering:

Too many colleges don’t deliver on what they promise. You generate a ton of debt, you don’t learn the most useful things for your life. It’s [just] an extended adolescence.

Thomas Friedman, the journalist who reported this, isn’t fully persuaded.

For most young people, though, going to college and doing well is still the best way to master the tools needed for many careers.

But even Friedman wants College students to heed Bock’s advice:

Beware. Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do any job. The world only cares about — and pays off on — what you can do with what you know (and it doesn’t care how you learned it). And in an age when innovation is increasingly a group endeavor, it also cares about a lot of soft skills — leadership, humility, collaboration, adaptability and loving to learn and re-learn. This will be true no matter where you go to work.

Don’t Rely on College
Friedman’s point is don’t rely on College alone, no matter how prestigious or costly. But how will our kids learn these skills?

Continued involvement in and commitment to their family is a great place to start. Church youth groups are another good training ground. Team sports and hobbies can also be helpful forums. Part-time jobs in tough environments like Macdonalds do no harm either. Being mentored in a trade is also invaluable. And, O, for more innovative High School teachers who will brake the mold, and aim far higher than simply producing and hailing content experts who couldn’t start or maintain a conversation with an adult to save their lives.

Seminary Challenge
But this is also a challenge to Seminary students. These five qualities are also absolutely vital for the ministry and at least three or four of them cannot be learned in the classroom. That’s why previous work experience is usually so important and why ongoing involvement and service in the local church is non-negotiable.

Seminaries, like Colleges, can produce content experts. But what’s far more important is what students can do with what they know. That’s what makes someone a people expert. Or, in other words, a shepherd.

Male heroes
Teenage boys need men in their lives, and not just any men, but heroic men, men they admire and look up to, men they want to be like. Male teachers have a unique opportunity to be one of these male role models, not least because so many boys don’t have active fathers in their lives.

At least 90% of my school teachers were women. Few if any of them understood teenage boys. Most of them seemed to barely tolerate us and none of them had a clue about how to gain our respect or cooperation.

With one exception, the male teachers I had were very poor specimens of manhood. Some of them were just weird, others had horrific tempers, while others just hated what they were doing and hated most of us as well.

The one exception was my Physical Education teacher, Alec McVake. What a man! What a hero he was to us – and not just on the soccer pitch. Wherever he met us, even outside of school, he was always interested in us, always kind, always an inspiration. He was strict and tough when needed, but the vast majority of his interactions were positive and encouraging. I would do anything for him, and to this day I believe my character and conduct still bears his imprint.

Male encouragement
I touched on this in the last point, but boys love to be praised and encouraged by men. Some male teachers would do better as lawyers and prison guards. Of course we need rules and regulations, and discipline, and demerits, and lines, and detention, and privilege-denial, etc. But if that’s all boys expereince, they just give in and give up. Boys need authority, but they are utterly repulsed or crushed by bullying authoritarianism and constant criticism.

In contrast, they do well when surrounded by a general spirit of cheerful optimism, good humor, and individual encouragement. I can still remember the impact of being praised by Mr McVake for a few things I did on the soccer pitch. That’s 35 years ago and it’s still part of my psyche. It boosted my confidence, made me want to try even harder, and the positive vibes even spilled into other subjects too.

Male activities
Which brings me on to the need for much greater emphasis and respect for  “traditionally” male activities such as woodwork, mechanics, strenuous sports, business skills, etc.

I realize that sounds sexist, and I’m not suggesting girls shouldn’t or don’t do these things. But boys do thrive in these areas in their teenage years. They like making useful things, getting covered in grease, knocking lumps out of one another, and especially making  money. But in many schools there’s no recognition for these talents and skills. Everything is weighted towards the academics and the studious.

I’d love to see school prizes reflect the diversity of interests, talents, and abilities in the genders. Can someone please explain to me why Algebra and Geometry are prized so highly above technical skills, manual gifts, and business acumen?

If boys would get encouragement in areas they excel in, they would be motivated to improve in other areas too. At the moment, unless you can do Algebra or write a novel, you’re a nothing.

Be patient
Boys do develop later than girls, especially in academics. I flunked the most important exams in my High School (partly because I was bored out of my skull, but mainly because I was devising ways of making my first million when my parents thought I was studying). I left school one year early with the boast that I’d never read one book in the whole of my high school education. I went straight to work in a large city insurance company and had no thoughts of ever going to college, never mind eventually teaching in a seminary.

All I’m saying is, be patient with us guys. Some of us are slow starters. Don’t give up on us. In the meantime, let’s get more male heroes into our classrooms, let’s inspire and encourage the guys, and let’s recognize the full range of unique talents and gifts that God has blessed us with.

What do you think would help boys do better at school?

Future Trends

• The growth of new institutions has slowed considerably and hardly any new nonprofit campuses will be built.
• State, federal, and private-philanthropic funds will be available to expand campus facilities but not enough to establish entire institutions.
• Smaller percentages of students will have full-time, on-campus experiences.
• Faculty professionalization has already made a U-turn, retarded by the massive influx of both part-timers and full-timers without security of employment.
• All the external pressures on curriculum favor vocationalism.
• Colleges and universities at all levels will be forced to seek other funds in order to mitigate the effects of state support that has not increased sufficiently to accommodate rising costs and enrollments.
• Colleges and universities may find themselves judged according to the same standards that are applied to any business: “To what extent does this entity add value?
• Inflation, depression, and increased competition from other agencies will continue affecting the funds available for higher education’s support, as well as the type and mode of postsecondary training desired by students.

Future Questions

The study then poses some thought-provoking questions about the future:

• Will twenty-first-century students continue enrolling in postsecondary institutions through depressions and recessions, or will prospective students’ reluctance to take on large debt burdens lead to reduced enrollments?
• As the number of high-paying jobs available to college graduates diminishes, will greater numbers of students develop and act on tendencies to create jobs for themselves?
• Will research and scholarly productivity be replaced with online course design and dedication to teaching when promotions are evaluated?
• Will the growing number of home-schooled students and the increasing popularity of online courses develop to the point at which virtual universities become an appealing alternative to the residential college experience for a significant percentage of students?

Good News

And the survey concludes with some encouraging news:

In the twenty-first century American higher education is the nation’s premier industry. By any measure, most of the world’s top universities are in the United States, which is the preferred destination for foreign students; American universities educate 30 percent of the total number of students who cross borders for advanced training. Furthermore, since September 11, 2001, more of them have developed overseas programs to serve international students who are unable to obtain student visas.

As the dust settles (I hope) we are faced with four main options for delivering education:

1. The Traditional Lecture: Mainly a monologue where information is delivered orally from one teacher to many students at a set time each week.

2. Distance/Online Learning: Individual students are given the course materials and assignments to work through on their own and at their own pace. Usually a solitary learning experience, with little student/teacher interaction and no student/student interaction. High dropout rate.

3. Flipped Classroom: Instead of lectures in the class and assignments at home, the class is “flipped” so that students watch/listen to the lecture at home in their own time, and come to class to work though problems, assignments, application of lessons together with the teacher and other students.

4. Blended Learning: This tries to combine the best of the previous three methods. Most (though not all) lectures are delivered online. Classroom time is given to working on assignments, testing learning, applying knowledge, discussion, and also to special lectures. In addition, technology is used to facilitate collaborative (student-to-student) learning via forums, etc.

Here’s a paper with a synopsis of some of the most significant online articles that have been written on the evolving educational scene over the past year or so. The research is increasingly showing that the Blended Learning model is the way of the future for many (though not all) subjects. The advantages, in summary, are:

Advantages

1. It costs the school less (30-50% less) and should therefore either reduce student costs or increase educational value.
2. Reduced tuition increases accessibility of education to poorer individuals and communities.
3. It saves time because the video lessons are prepared once and used (with some updating) thereafter. It also saves the student time because he/she does not need to be travelling to/from so many lectures.
4. Research shows that students tend to complete the courses faster.
5. The learning outcomes are equal to or better than traditional lectures.
6. Class time used for practical application of knowledge.
7. Emphasis not just on what you know, but can you use what you know. Not just the transmission/reception of information or ideas, but how to use them.
8. More time for one-to-one mentoring, modeling, relationship building.
9. Moves away from seat-time (credit hours) to competency.
10. Tends to produce more creative and accurate assessment methods than traditional major paper plus end-of-semester exam.
11. Plays to strengths of digital generation and provides means for constant student interaction and student-to-student teaching/learning.
12. Reduces the need for new buildings.
13. Increases personalization of education, customizing courses to individual learning styles, speeds, and needs.

Questions

• What do you think of these trends?
• Should seminaries just stick with the traditional methods?
• What’s your experience of these different methods?
• What are the best ways to make blended courses work?
• Are there any subjects that should always be taught by traditional lecture?
• Should schools offer different methods to suit different kinds of learners?
• What should be a professor’s role? Do we need professors dedicated to online teaching?

Those who are teachable, and remain so, usually succeed. The unteachable usually fail. I’ve seen that in business, I’ve seen it in the ministry, I’ve seen it among students, and I’ve seen it in my children.

No matter how much talent and gifting we have, if we are, or become, unteachable, we will never reach anywhere near our full potential in our careers, our callings, or our relationships.

The Distinguishing Difference
Think of all the successful people you know, what is it that distinguishes them all? It’s teachability, isn’t it.Think of all the people you know that never really made the most of the gifts and opportunities God gave them. Unteachability is the common thread, isn’t it?

If there’s one thing I want to to teach my children and students, it’s teachability.

When I speak to young people or students, I can usually tell quite quickly the ones who will do well in their lives and callings. And those who won’t. Teachability makes the difference.

Teachability gets people to the top. But if you lose teachability at the top, you won’t be at the top for long.

So what does unteachabilty look like?

• Don’t take notes, read books, or learn anything unless it’s the bare minimum or what’s essential for exam purposes.
• Don’t ask questions or attempt anything that might reveal your ignorance or risk you looking stupid.
• Don’t accept responsibility for your failures but blame anyone and everyone else.
• Don’t seek or accept one-to-one personal guidance or mentoring from parents, teachers, pastors, elders, etc.
• Don’t listen, but talk, talk, talk about yourself, especially when you’re with someone you could learn a lot from.
• Don’t take criticism or correction without resentment or retaliation.
• Resist moving out of personal comfort zones in work, study, ministry, or relationships, but always look for the easy and familiar route.
• Don’t read, listen to, or learn anything that challenges existing presuppositions, practices, and prejudices.

In contrast, teachability means:

• You’re aware of the limitations of your own knowledge and abilities.
• You admit limitation, inability, and ignorance to others who can teach and help.
• You regularly ask for help, instruction, guidance, and advice (before the event, not after disaster strikes).
• You learn from anyone and everyone you can (the best educated pastor I know writes notes for his own benefit even when listening to a novice preacher).
• You listen to others carefully and patiently with a desire to learn from everyone.
• You’re prepared to move out of your comfort zone, try something different, make mistakes, look stupid, answer wrongly, etc.
• You don’t give up when you fail at something, but seek help, and try again and again until you get it right.
• You’re willing to change your views and practices when convincing evidence is presented to you, even if it means admitting you were wrong.

There’s another word for teachability.

Humility.

But you probably learned a few much bigger lessons that have shaped your whole life.

Author Stephen Dubner, of Freakonomics fame, returned to Appalachian State University to thank his three favorite professors  for these three life-changing lessons he learned in their classes.

• No matter what you are or who you are, don’t blame your equipment.
• Be willing to learn from everything and everyone.
• Know your audience/medium/customers.

What’s especially intriguing is that none of the professors could remember teaching these lessons! Which makes me wonder what lessons I am unconsciously teaching my students.

When I look back to my University and Seminary days, it’s true I can hardly remember anything I was taught in formal lectures. I was definitely taught to think and write a bit better, but I struggle to recall any lecture content.

Like Dubner, though, I did learn life-lessons that continue to influence my own life and ministry:

• The character of the teacher matters more than the content of his teaching.
• Striving for simplicity, brevity, and clarity is the hardest work but the greatest service.
• Passionate teaching makes for passionate hearers.

The podcast touches on this last point when Dubner asks what makes a successful student. One of the professors answers: “You gotta want it. You gotta bring something to the table. If you want it, you’ll get it. You gotta learn to be passionate about something. If you don’t have any passion in life, who cares?” Students take heed!

What three life-lessons did you learn at College?

Listen to The Things They Taught Me (NB: there’s a semi-bleeped word around 10.22-10.24)

Ragged Schools
My friend Andrew Murray (not a relation, though I wouldn’t mind he if was), has been practically involved in social work and Christian social action for many years in some of the toughest communities in Scotland. He’s just started Ragged Theology, a blog dedicated to the inspirational life of Thomas Guthrie, the “Apostle” of the ragged school movement in the 1800′s. You can read Andrew’s brief bio of Guthrie here. He writes:

While Dr Guthrie was one of the finest preachers of the Free Church in the 19^th Century, his greatest legacy was surely as a social reformer.  This is summed up on his statue in Edinburgh which declares ‘a friend of the poor and the oppressed’.  Even in his first rural parish in Angus Guthrie was a great friend of the poor.  He established a savings bank and library; ‘The success of the bank and the library I attribute very much to this, that I myself managed them.  They were of great service by bringing me into familiar and frequent and kindly contact with my people’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 113).  Guthrie believed that the minister should live and work amongst the people.  Writing while still in Arbirlot he said to a Mr Dunlop; ‘I have discovered from my own experience that the further the people are removed from the manse, the less influence has the minister over them: and if a man won’t live among the scum of the Cowgate [central Edinburgh] I would at once say to him ‘You can’t be my minister’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 309).

Empty prisons
I think you’ll be moved by Andrew’s account of how Guthrie inspired a society-transforming, prison-emptying movement of “ragged schools.” He concludes:

Guthrie was an outstanding preacher, a faithful pastor, a winsome evangelist and one of Scotland’s finest social reformers. Guthrie’s legacy lives on in the provision that there is both in terms of welfare and education for rich and poor alike…He died in the early hours of Monday 24^th February 1873 with his faithful Highland nurse and his family at his bedside.  It is said that with the exception of Dr Thomas Chalmers and Sir James Simpson, Edinburgh had not seen a funeral like it in a generation.  It was reported that 230 children from the original ragged school attended his funeral and sang a hymn at the grave. One little girl was overheard saying ‘He was all the father I ever knew.’

Amongst Guthrie’s last words he was overheard to say ‘a brand plucked from the burning!’  His legacy was that through his vision and love for his Saviour, the Ragged School movement was established which in turn plucked thousands of little brands from a life of poverty and crime, and brought them to know the ultimate friend of sinners.

From history to vision
But Andrew’s not just a historian, he’s also a visionary. He’s trying to live out Guthrie’s vision in his own day and place.  Guthrie on early intervention is a wonderful speech he gave to a group of Aberdeen businessmen last week on how they could help translate Guthrie’s model and principles into today’s culture and society.

You can read more about Andrew’s “Wilberforce-type” work at Bethany Christian Trust here or view the video below:

A friend recently asked for some tips on memorizing. So here’s a short video with ten tips from the pre-Dirk Naves archive! Watch on Vimeo here.

1. Start early
2. Highlight
3. Graphics
4. Speak out loud
5. Emphasize
6. Set time limit
7. Let cement set
8. Review and review
9. Test
10. Practice

And here’s another post with ten study techniques that also touched on memorizing.

1. Testing yourself repeatedly before an exam teaches the brain to retrieve and apply knowledge from memory. The method is more effective than re-reading a textbook.

2. Review the toughest material right before going to bed the night before the test. That approach makes it easier to recall the material later.

3. Don’t wake up earlier than usual to study; this could interfere with the rapid-eye-movement sleep that aids memory. (All-nighters impair memory and reasoning for up to 4 days).

4. Eat breakfast the day of a big test. High-carb, high-fiber, slow-digesting foods like oatmeal are best.

5. What you eat a week in advance matters, too. Students who ate a regular balanced diet that included fruit and veg did better than those who ate a high-fat, low-carb diet that was heavy on meat, eggs, cheese, and cream. The brain requires a constant supply of energy and “has only a limited backup battery.”

6. While many teens insist they study better while listening to music or texting their friends, research shows the opposite: Information reviewed amid distractions is less likely to be recalled later.

7. Reducing “novelty and stress on the day of the exam” can prevent choking under pressure. If you are taking the exam in an unfamiliar place, visit the room in advance.

8. If you’re still feeling anxious about an exam, set aside 10 minutes beforehand to write down your worries. Expressing one’s worries in writing, unburdens the brain.

Here’s 9 & 10 from me.

9. Short and frequent is better than long and rare. It is better to study your four or five subjects every day for shorter times than to study one subject each day for the full day. By the time you go back to what you studied four or five days previously, most of what you learned will have gone.

10. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I know it’s really boring but it’s also really effective. When I ask struggling Hebrew students about their study habits, they will usually say, “Well, I study 2-3 hours every day. The first thing I tell them to do is to shorten their study time. Once they’ve started breathing again, I explain the strategy using the following diagram:

(I can’t remember where I picked this up, but it works for all subjects, and especially for language study).

8am: Study the subject first thing in the morning for 45-60 minutes maximum. As soon as you end that period, your mind immediately starts losing data at a frighteningly rapid rate. Imagine where this graph ends up by the end of the day (feel familiar?)

11am: Re-study the same material again, although this time it should only take you 20-30 minutes. Notice that the knowledge level is higher than the the first period (and reached faster), and that the data loss rate has a shallower gradient (it takes longer to forget what you’ve learned).

4pm: Re-study same material again, this time for 10-15 minutes. Knowledge peak is even higher and gradient of loss even shallower. (In between these study times, you can be studying other subjects using the same method.)

9pm: Just before bed, review the material one more time for about 5-10 mins. Note peak and gradient (appealing, isn’t it!).  Compare where you are now with where you would be if you only studied the subject for one long period. Where would that red line be? Preachers, imagine what this could do for your eye-contact!

And if you want to seal it for good, do a quick 5-minute review first thing the next morning before studying new material. That will really set the mental concrete.

However, I then asked you for ideas to help compile a top 10 list that would be especially relevant for Christian students. Here’s your suggestions, together with my own.

Books
1. Read Thriving at College by Alex Chediak. Every church should have a crate of these to give away to their students.

2. Get addicted to the holy habits of daily Bible reading (thanks Se7en), and prayer. Whatever else you study, make the Word of God your #1 priority. And whoever else you speak to, speak to your Maker, Sustainer, Guide, and Guard. As Pete said, you need the Lord’s help to “flee temptations.”

Relationships
3. Seize the immense opportunity to form friendships and speak the gospel to those friends. Ryan commented: “The time in college is far and away the most fertile ground for relational evangelism.” (see Ryan’s letter to new students here.) Pete advised students to consider a College Campus ministry to encourage you and train you in this.

4. Mix with older people. The vibrancy of multiple young people on a campus can make older people seem very boring. However, mixing with wise and experienced older people, especially senior citizens, can teach you more than any college. And, believe it or not, they can also learn from you.

5. Keep in regular contact with your parents (and your brothers and sisters). Many young people go to college, plunge themselves into exciting new relationships, and almost completely cut themselves off from their families – sometimes unthinkingly, but sometimes deliberately. Not wise. Make sure that you are in at least weekly contact with your parents and share your life with them.

6. Don’t major in dating, and don’t make marriage your ultimate goal. If God means you to marry, then you don’t have to spend every waking and sleeping moment thinking and dreaming about it. He’ll arrange the marriage. Be patient. Don’t experiment.

Church
7. Set yourself a deadline to choose and settle down in a local church. To spend a few weeks or even a couple months looking for the best church is fine. But insist to yourself that you choose by the end of the first semester and then stay there. And don’t choose a church based on dating potential.

8. Serve your local church. Don’t just be a taker; be a giver too. Ask what service you can offer to your church. And don’t think yourself above the mundane and unseen service roles.

9. Find a mentor. Maybe ask the pastor or one of the elders to meet with you regularly to keep you accountable and to encourage your spiritual growth and development. Work through a book together, perhaps something like Note to Self by Joe Thorn.

Rest
10. Keep the Lord’s Day holy. You will be very tempted by all the student activities offered on Sundays. You will also be tempted to study your subjects, write your papers, and prepare for exams on Sunday afternoon and evening. But your body and mind need to rest. Research has shown that students who take a full day off studies each week do better than those who work and study seven days a week. If you keep Sunday free for worship, fellowship, Christian service, reading good books, etc., you are laying a foundation for College and life success. Get organized for Monday on Saturday, trust the Lord to honor your honoring of His day, and begin to look forward to a day each week when you can leave your studies behind with a good conscience. You’ll find it liberating!