Keynote Speaker at England's Conference "21st Schooling: The Globalised Challenge"

I have spent the past 3 days in Birmingham UK at a gathering of over 1,500 educators from around the world (mostly British) to discuss what primary and secondary education should evolve to for Western nations to "stay in the economic game " globally as China and India, among other nations, are rising.

My film - 2MM: A Global Examination - was shown twice and The 21st Century Solution was screened as well - all to respectably large crowds.

I delivered three speeches:

    1- Education, Innovation and Economic Policy: What nations must do well in the 21st century

            Download UK - Education, Innovation and Economic Policy

    2- The 21st Century Curriculum: Whole-Brain Education

            Download UK - 21st Century Curriculum

    3- China, India and Western Hubris: Education and Economic Success (my keynote address)

The conference has been an energizing experience - unlike US conferences of similar nature - there has been very little pontificating. Most attendees simply want to to help their children succeed in the 21st century. It has been a breath of fresh air to an American guest.

Birmingham has an enormous ferris wheel in the center of town:

Comments

[Sarah Brodsky]

Looks like it was a great presentation. I'm confused why you recommend that schools stop teaching French, though. True, it's not so widely spoken as it once was, but nobody speaks Latin either and that's in your curriculum.

[John Tomsett]

Hi Bob

I was at two of your sessions. I am Headteacher at a state school in York, England, called Huntington School. I have built my career on two mantras - Success nourishes them: they can because they think they can, a quotation by Virgil, and the other is, There's no substitute for hard work, which I have adopted as mine! Our school purpose is to inspire confident leaners who will thrive in a changing world, and your films and philosophy have been refreshing. I now have another mantra, NO MORE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, though too few of my students will know what a LCD is. We are on the verge of making a significant change to our curriculum and we refuse to chase meaningless qualifications which do not educate students or prepare them for the changing world. Study can be difficult, full of rigour AND fun! Thanks for your input - it's been inspiring.