Creating Innovators (Enhanced eBook): The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World

by Tony Wagner

In this groundbreaking book, education expert Tony Wagner provides a powerful rationale for developing an innovation-driven economy. He explores what parents, teachers, and employers must do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators. In profiling compelling young American innovators such as Kirk Phelps, product manager for Apple’s first iPhone, and Jodie Wu, who founded a company that builds bicycle-powered maize shellers in Tanzania, Wagner reveals how the adults in their lives nurtured their creativity and sparked their imaginations, while teaching them to learn from failures and persevere. Wagner identifies a pattern—a childhood of creative play leads to deep-seated interests, which in adolescence and adulthood blossom into a deeper purpose for career and life goals. Play, passion, and purpose: These are the forces that drive young innovators.

     Wagner shows how we can apply this knowledge as educators and what parents can do to compensate for poor schooling. He takes readers into the most forward-thinking schools, colleges, and workplaces in the country, where teachers and employers are developing cultures of innovation based on collaboration, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and intrinsic motivation. The result is a timely, provocative, and inspiring manifesto that will change how we look at our schools and workplaces, and provide us with a road map for creating the change makers of tomorrow.

     Creating Innovators will feature its own innovative elements: more than sixty original videos that expand on key ideas in the book through interviews with young innovators, teachers, writers, CEOs, and entrepreneurs, including Thomas Friedman, Dean Kamen, and Annmarie Neal.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Parenting, Teaching, Business, School, Leadership

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 17, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade.

Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.

Tony is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and a widely published author. His work includes numerous articles and five books. Tony’s latest, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, will be published in April by Simon & Schuster. His recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—and What We Can do About It has been a best seller and is being translated into Chinese. Tony’s other titles include: Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools, Making the Grade: Reinventing America’s Schools, and How Schools Change: Lessons from Three Communities Revisited. He has also recently collaborated with noted filmmaker Robert Compton to create a 60 minute documentary, “The Finnish Phenomenon: Inside The World’s Most Surprising School System.”

Tony earned an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has an excellent premise, and the first few chapters of theory were useful. However, the title would better reflect the content if it were called, "Interviews with People Who Parented Innovators." I thought the content could have been better distilled and organized. While many of the people who were featured were interesting, I had to fight to finish this book.

The inclusion of QR codes seemed like an interesting idea, but it distracted highly from the reading. Perhaps for someone willing to stop halfway through a chapter to watch a long video with the people discussed, it would be useful. Not for me.

If you are an educator (or a homeschooler like myself) looking for practical ways to alter your education settings or lifestyle, this is probably not the book you are looking for. While there are good concepts about learning via play, limiting screen time, and promoting flexibility, the majority of this book is a kind of mish-mash of anecdotes about people and various schools.

I started reading Legendary Learning: The Famous Homeschoolers' Guide to Self-Directed Excellence just after this one, and I think Legendary Learning is a much better guide to a very similar topic.

[Sara]

How did I do as an innovation creator? Very limited or no tv: check; lots of unstructured play: check; limited activities outside of school: check; encouraging my kids to do what they love and are passionate about: check; spending lots of cash on hoity toity private schools and perhaps even moving the WHOLE family for one kid's education at said hoity toity school: darn. Despite the lack of cash, I have to say that my children are amazingly creative and making a big difference in their chosen fields. Wagner's research is very biased towards STEM folks being the only valid innovators. An interesting read, even though it can't be accepted as actual research about how to create innovative people. We aren't all innovators, thank goodness. I can see it now: trendy parents turning off the tv, selling all the video games, turning in the soccer chairs, and not understanding why little Mavis or Marvin isn't an innovative creator heading towards a full ride at Stanford or MIT. Trust me, parents: Mavis/Marvin may simply not be the innovative type, which is ok. Read them a good book on the couch and give them some Legos and crayons anyway!

[Jeff Bush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tony Wagner's new book is pretty good. It is worth reading and there is some good stuff in there, but I was a little disappointed after reading the "Global Achievement Gap," which was one of the best books I've ever read on education. I suppose disappointment was inevitable.

Wagner concludes that the creation of innovators demands passion, play, and purpose. Wagner also looks for examples in innovative schools and innovative teachers. The book is the next logical step after "The Global Achievement Gap." In his original work, Wagner took a jackhammer to the NCLB-mindset, which believes achieving good standardized test scores is the pinnacle of good education. In his current work, Wagner attempts to paint a more detailed picture - so standardized test scores aren't enough, then what should we be trying to do? Wagner's answer, as stated above, is passion, play, and purpose.

The book is mostly a series of anecdotes. Wagner interviews teachers, students, parents, professors, businessmen, etc. In each interview Wagner tries to uncover the reasons behind the creation of an innovator. There certainly is some merit to this process, and the multiple layers of interpretation bring a depth to Wagner's analysis that few education books have. There are many, many positive things to say about the depth of Wagner's analysis.

However, while the depth is impressive it should also be noted that the breadth is lacking. This book is a series of anecdotes. There are no scientific studies with large samples of students. There is no reference to the work of incredible cognitive psychologists who specialize in education (Daniel Willingham!!). The depth is so deep and the breadth is so narrow that I am left to wonder if the validity of Wagner's conclusions have any strength to them at all. Yes, they sound great. And I have a personal affinity to Wagner's vision of education. He describes the type of schools I've always wanted to see - schools driven by skills over content. But lots of things sound great. The real question is if it works. Can Wagner tell us if his approach works? Unfortunately not. The sample of Wagner's anecdotes is so small that he is thoroughly unprepared to answer this question.

Overall, a good book. Yes, there is one serious flaw, but that is the only one. "Creating Innovators" contributes positively to the educational dialogue. I recommend reading it, and you might as well just do it. Wagner has become such a force in educational circles that you're probably going to hear his ideas in your staff meetings. You might as well just read it and get the full picture.

[goodbyewaffles]

"I asked [former CEO of Best Buy] Brad [Anderson] to give an example of how he has used his employees' knowledge to improve the overall customer experience, and he described how some of the younger employees had noticed that few women ever came into their stores. It turned out that many women were turned off by the technical talk about the number of megapixels in a digital camera, for example, when all they wanted to know was how to e-mail their friend a picture they'd taken."

...

...

HEY BRO I FIGURED OUT WHY YOUR COMPANY'S DYING

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before you read this review please note that I read this book as someone who wants to learn more about building innovative environments for vendors and potential employees. I am not an educator.


Tony Wagner explains how we as mentors, leaders, parents and teachers need to improve the development of young, potential innovators in order to help solve prominent economic and social challenges. And I believe him. Innovation is needed in every industry.

In many respects, we're stifling youth development and innovation with outdated/traditional teaching methods and uninspiring office environments. I've felt trapped and uninspired at one point in every stage of my life.

Economies worldwide are struggling, poverty is widespread and technologies are both contributing new possibilities and crushing old ones. What people are doing today will be old news tomorrow. The world needs people who can identify constraints, define problems and inefficiencies, and make difficult decisions in favor of societal improvement and advancement.

When I look back at my childhood I can remember the joy I experienced from building things. I loved building structures and spaceships from Legos, then briefly admiring them not even long enough for them to collect dust ...or until my mother intervened. She was a real stickler for a clean living room!

But I never really enjoyed playing with my already-assembled Legos. For me, the joy came from the process of building. The gratification for me came (and still stems) from experimenting, learning how to solve problems, evaluating, learning how to take existing systems/practices/Lego instruction manuals and adapting them...and improving them.

Tony Wagner explores the question that constantly runs through my head: What happened to playing?

Wagner points out that many schools (at least in the US) are designed to produce high standardized test scores and "college-ready" students. Many colleges and universities are designed to produce graduate level-ready students. You may disagree with those statements but my point is, the main focus is usually not on producing innovative people. A lot of us may have already lost that fearless, innovative spirit that once flourished on playgrounds and in playrooms.

The world needs innovators. We need them everywhere. We need innovation in science, in education, in infrastructure, in finance, in culinary arts, in plumbing and so on. And Wagner explains that innovation stems from a less traditional way of educating that thrives off of these following intrinsic motivations: Play, Passion and Purpose.

As a teacher herself, my partner finds innovative ways to motivate and excite her young students everyday. Admittedly, she's the one who told me about this book which presents evidence and methods on how we can better prepare our youth for a world that's truly ripe for disruption. And someday her students, the ones who may have come to school with unimaginative, obedient minds, will leave with fearless, inventive minds en route to becoming some of the world's next innovators.

I think there's something for everyone in this book if you can get through the number of stories Wagner tells. This explorative read is designed to help us understand what we can do to help nurture the qualities of innovators - whether you're dealing with students or professionals. And in order to do that, it requires reflecting on who you are as a human being, identifying what's important to you, identifying why you're on this earth and then translating that deeper understanding into a leadership platform. Most importantly, innovation flourishes upon creating an empowering culture that feeds on the mentioned intrinsic motivations of Play, Passion and Purpose allowing ideas--both good and bad--to foster.

[Qwerty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Follow your passion, repeat follow your passion, repeat again follow your passion. This may have been an interesting magazine length article, but as a book it is very repetitive and not all that insightful.

[Kaufmak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's see how do you create innovators? According to Wagner it take three easy steps.
1: Be Wealthy. In almost all of the examples provided, the innovators came from middle-class to upper class backgrounds. If you want to learn about innovation, get insights about it, talk to CEOs, COOs, and other top executives of major companies.
2: Gain Exposure to the top Universities in the United States. Along those same lines, try and get into Harvard, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Emory, and the like to get the education you need to be an innovator. If you don't finish at said schools, that is ok, remember step one, you are wealthy so you have that to fall back on.
3: Be White. While not absolutely essential, it certainly seems to help. Almost every innovator Wagner profiled seemed to be of Caucasian descent. Again not every single one, but pretty close. It also doesn't hurt to have a trendy name like Zander or Taylor.

Throughout much of this book, Wagner doesn't really define what innovation is. He gives some examples of interesting projects and especially products, but how innovative those things are is a matter of perspective. For example, Wagner's lead profile in on the young man who developed the first iPhone. Sure, as a product it was marginally innovative. Ultimately though, it is just another phone with a few more bells and whistles. What's more it is already obsolete. So the strategy of planned obsolescence, a mid-twentieth century stalwart, is being passed off as innovation. Finally, the iPhone doesn't exist without some of the worst labor practices in the world. Of course those concerns are ignored by Wagner, much like the Apple advertisements meant to distract us from 19th century labor practices, "Designed in America" but built in China.

Even the "social innovators" profiled in this book are more concerned with dressing up the status quo and calling it new. Is anyone really against funding projects in Sierra Leone? To be truly innovative, let's think of ways to distribute wealth in a more equitable manner so microfunding and other novelty schemes are as necessary. To be truly innovative, let's start working on the roots of social problems instead of applying new band-aids to old gun shot wounds.

In the Afterword, Wagner does back track a bit on some of is ideas. He realizes that charter schools are not the panacea of education and though he is not tenured, I think getting a paycheck from Harvard has blunted some of his criticism of the tenure structure. If you want to be an innovator, don't read this book. Take that time to develop your own ideas. If you want to create innovators, don't read this book. Raise your kids to be responsible, curious and disciplined. Only you know how to achieve that balance for your children.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will keep this one short and sweet. I like the premise of the book, that being an innovator requires play, passion, and purpose. I agree wholeheartedly with the author's commentary about the poor state of modern education and the dangers of overparenting. I would recommend anyone interested in properly reforming education read this book.

"Anyone who has spent time in an elementary school classroom knows that every student starts school with unbounded imagination, curiosity, and creativity - until he or she learns that knowing the right answer is far more important than asking a thoughtful question."

"We are trying to teach students how to frame problems versus repeat the answers."

I seriously question the usefulness of our school systems in preparing students for the real world. The uptick in student complaints about such things as "trigger warnings" shows the ridiculously sheltered and entitled nature of these young people. Instead of being inquisitive and excited about learning and being exposed to new ideas, many simply want to keep hearing what they've already heard, master what they've already mastered, and be told what the answer is but only if they like the answer.

That said, I do have several issues with the book.

First and foremost is the author failed to truly show an innovator arising from a detrimental environment. Even the ones that seemingly started life poorly were still much better off than their peers, including opportunities to learn abroad, attend elite schools, and meet valuable mentors. The lead example had to play soccer on the other side of town to be exposed to other cultures outside of his suburban bubble. Another example's parents worried about driving through sketchy portions of Atlanta (their daughter did not). The best examples of innovative learning and students are all centered around sub-sections of schools like MIT and Stanford. This actually goes a long way to showing the broken state of innovative education in the US but doesn't help the case that you can create an innovator out of anyone. The epilogue, written by the film partner, also brings up the point that the innovators have a hard time "making passion pay the bills."

There was a lot of repetition. The basic premise of play, passion, purpose is repeated over and over. Each chapter ends with a reflections section that sums up how the chapter illustrated those pillars. The author refers back to his previous book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Our Kids Don't Have the Skills They Need for College, Careers, and Citizenship—and What We Can Do About It, numerous times despite the opening saying it has become a bit outdated.

The inclusion of the QR codes really dragged down the book for me. Even if I wanted to scan them, they were so prevalent that the actual reading would be disrupted. It's a neat idea to integrate such technology, but every book I've seen this done I never even bothered with the extra content. Maybe a more innovative approach is needed it to work and entice more people.

I appreciated the message and premise of this book much more than its actual execution.

[K.K. Wootton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can be a little redundant, but extremely interesting and informative. Highly recommend the enhanced ebook on iPad. The integration of videos is excellent. I wish, though, that the book examined students whose gifts were in the arts. The author addresses this omission in the introduction, claiming (I think) that the book simply had to be pared down. But there was redundancy in the book -- sections that served to drive home points that had already been well made. Without those redundancies, there would have been room to examine an artistic kid or two. The semi-exception is the story of a young shoe designer who is working to build his own company. Amazing story. This incredible person is not only an artist, but an entrepreneur. What about the painter who can barely tie his shoelaces? Or the shy novelist?

I also felt slightly annoyed by the hyper-achievement showcased here. I understand that central to the book is examination of innovators, but sometimes I thought - c'mon, is a kid dropping out of Exeter to go to Stanford really something parents should be looking at as an example of radical choices that work? Or the supermodel/Columbia-student child of two geniuses. You're talking about highly gifted, extraordinary kids. True, there were takeaways from every case study, but sometimes the book seemed to show a lack of understanding about how extreme these kids were.

No shortage of references to Harvard, Stanford and MIT, btw;) Try to get into one of those suckers without acing some serious multiple choice tests (which the book denounces, to some extent)!

[Moayad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the longest reads I've gone through recently, but I believe it was worth it.

Creating innovators is a window that peers into their lives at home, schools, and during their careers. Each of these phases had directed and affected them one way or the other molding them into what they are. Whether they innovated in STEM fields or social endeavors, you begin to see patterns in their upbringing, education, and self development that the author captures and explains in a concise and clear direction. Parents, educators, employers, or budding creators can, and should, grasp these gems of knowledge and instill them in upcoming generations or within themselves.

I enjoyed reading the case studies and lessons learned extracted from them. To be frank though, it started to feel repetitive at a point where it was yet another case study that didn't really present anything new to the equation it just had different variables that lead to the same result. The book also took a couple of swings at the educational system and its evaluation method which I do agree is part of the problem but it may have been a bit too critical going about it.

To every parent, soon to be parent, person lost in ambition with dormant energy waiting to be released, EDUCATORs, EDUCATORs, and EDUCATORs this book is a must read, it provides you with much needed introspection and arms you to carve your way or that of youngsters in your life that gets them, or you, from good to great.

[Alex Rohani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the first 20% and the last 20% where there were practical and tangible discussions with people the author interviewed about what can be done with kids at home and schools in order to create more ‘innovators’

However the middle chunk where the author went through dozens of people that are adults and many college programs felt repetitive and unnecessary. Middle part probably could have been 50 pages shorter.

I also assumed the book would be more adolescent and younger focused on how to motivate and work with young kids are ‘creating innovators’.

[Amanda Herzog · Rating 4 out of 5]

CQ+ PQ> IQ
Creativity+Passion > IQ
Helping my kids and myself explore the world and find what truly inspires them. Learning how to learn and enjoying the process and failure is a necessary life skill. Hopefully this will help our average IQ put a “ding” in the universe. Our traditional methods for education are out dated in an era with such easy access to information. We need more coaches in education facilitating action not lecturing. Let the internet know everything, show me what you can do with it and your passion.
I am inspired to focus on the details of my interests, remember them, and do something with them!

[Rachel Rosero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this in the context of parenting and educating.

[Sarvesh Kumar Dubey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult but good read. Not for those not interested in improving education system.

[Zoe Badcock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this and after a while it was annoying how the reader made different voices, including trying to sound feminine in such a bad way. The book was very US centric and seemed repetitive. There were some interesting stories but it all seemed one dimensional - learning knowledge bad, learning skills by doing, good. Innovation seemed to be fairly uniform too.

[A.D. Hoang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Đây là một cuốn sách tốt dành cho những ai đã nhàm chán với những câu hỏi: "Làm thế nào để học sinh vào được trường đại học tốt nhất?", hay "Làm thế nào để các em có được nghề nghiệp tốt nhất?". Tony Wagner đã quan sát những ngành nghề không có sự đổi mới, và thấy rằng chúng rất dễ bị tự động hoá. Vậy, tại sao ta lại phải mất công để học trò phải chuẩn bị cho những thứ có thể bị thay thế trong phút mốt? Thay vì thế, hãy giúp học trò trở thành những người đổi mới.

Tác giả đưa ra 5 thành tố cơ bản của hệ thống Giáo dục sự đổi mới (Education for Innovation), bao gồm:
1. Cộng tác thay vì ganh đua (Collaboration v/s Individual Achievement)
2. Học tập liên ngành thay vì học tập chuyên ngành (Multidisciplinary Learning v/s Specialization)
3. Thử nghiệm và thất bại, thay vì lảng tránh những rủi ro (Trial and error v/s Risk avoidance)
4. (Chủ động) Làm ra, thay vì (Thụ động) hưởng thụ (Creating v/s Consuming)
5. Động lực nội tại, thay vì động lực ngoại lai (Intrinsic vs/ Extrinsic Motivation)

Bên cạnh đó, cuốn sách cũng nhắc nhiều tới sự thay đổi của các trường trung học gắn liền với cuộc thi Intel ISEF, những minh hoạ cụ thể trong việc Giáo dục STEM (STEM education) và các môn học STEM (STEM subjects) đã được triển khai và hình thành văn hoá thế nào.

Sự đối lập giữa cơ chế và thực tiễn ở nước cờ hoa cũng không khác ở Việt Nam là mấy. Một mặt, những người làm chính sách muốn phát triển những chương trình "chính thống", những danh mục để đánh giá thành quả học tập từ mầm non tới hết phổ thông. Mặt khác, các trường học lại cần sự đổi mới, sáng tạo, trao quyền để giáo viên đem lại những dự án thực hành, những khoá học liên ngành (hay ở ta gọi là những bài học tích hợp). Ngày nay, để có thể tạo động lực cho học sinh khám phá và sáng tạo, nhà giáo cần phải thực sự chú tâm trong việc tạo ra môi trường học tập đổi mới. Thế nhưng, chúng ta cũng không thể hoàn toàn phó thác chuyện đó lên đôi vai một người thầy. Văn hoá học đường là một sự tổng hoà, và chỉ có thể được xây dựng bởi nỗ lực và cảm hứng từ cả tập thể.

Tony Wagner là học giả đầu tiên tại Trung tâm Công nghệ và Khởi nghiệp (Technology and Entrepreneurship Center) của Đại học Harvard. Ông có một vài tựa sách về giáo dục, trong đó có cuốn "The Global Achievenment Gap", một cuốn rất hợp để tương hỗ cùng cuốn này bởi những chủ đề vĩ mô, đa góc cạnh nhưng chi tiết.

[Christina Gagliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

The power of this book comes from the real-world experiences--written in a conversational and engaging way--of the young innovators and their parents, teachers, and mentors who have made/are making a difference, who are truly encouraging innovative thinking and inspiring students to follow their passions in a purposeful way. One of the most resounding quotes that in the book was from filmmaker Scott Rosenberg, on page 145: "I believe our job (as teachers/mentors/parents) is to look for the threads, plant the seeds, and provide them (students) with the tools and structures for purposefulnes. Someone who has a purpose or a reason can endure a lot. This is where our education system is utterly lacking. Who wants to go through the crap of all that rote work and memorization for no reason?"

Microsoft tags are included throughout the book to provide supplemental video that is supposed to enhance the written book. Seeing the people profiled and hearing their voices was certainly powerful, as was the link to Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" and to the author's Asia Society lecture. In terms of content, though, most of the other tags didn't provide any additional value to what was written in the book. I do like the tags idea, and look forward to seeing how it is used in future books.

[Megan Merrithey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I bought two acres of land in Sierra Leone a while ago I was thinking I wanted to build a school - a place where kids come and don't think it's a school - a place you want to come every day, where your day is about feeling your presence in he world, knowing that you control who you are, that you can influence others, but at the same time you are not different or removed from everybody else. "

"We have seen how essential it is for teachers of innovators to give up a measure of their authority and control in order to transition from being the 'sage on the stage' to the 'guide on the side,'" -241
So true and so hard. Teacher accountability needs to be changed so we feel comfortable implementing innovative environments.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for any parent, teacher, employer or concerned citizen. There such a wide gap between the mindset of the academics in America and the mindset of the people leading successful businesses. A bleak future can be avoided if we can nurture a generation of innovative young people who are willing to take risks, learn from mistakes and collaborate with others. This book elaborates on the importance of Play, Passion and Purpose.
The author invested much effort to research the ideas put forth in the pages of this book and his assertions are backed up with real life examples. READ THIS BOOK.

[Eduardo Briceno · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book and agree with the philosophy and lessons from people interviewed. I especially appreciated the more concrete lessons distilled from lots of interviews (e.g. on what specifically kids get from play and how to structure it so kids develop as innovators, or on elements of school design/environment that develops innovators). He could have done a better job at bringing everything together into one cohesive framework/hypothesis, but we probably just aren't that sophisticated as a society yet to have such clarity on how to intentionally develop innovators. This is a positive step in that direction.

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was absolutely fascinating. It took a look at current education practices and showed how they are not producing innovative thinkers. I think my take-home message as far as helping my kids to be innovative thinkers is that they should have plenty of free playtime, should be exposed to a lot of different experiences as far as sports, trips, musical instruments,etc, and that we should encourage them to think for themselves and to problem-solve as creatively as possible early on.

[Rob Cantrall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read...both enlightening and eye-opening, with many profiles of young innovators (including the Product Manager of the first iPhone), this book already has us re-thinking what we want to do with the kids this summer. Beyond that, it has us reconsidering what we need to do relative to school and academia itself for our kids. Provocative, and a must read for any parent or educator.

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very inspiring! I am lucky to be able to teach in a school that isn't driven by test scores and gives kids a lot of freedom to pursue a passion for learning. I recommend this book for all parents and teachers who want to inspire their children to be a different kind of learner - one with passion, curiosity, insight, low fear of failure, drive, and the ability to think differently.

[Billeen Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another awesome book by Tony Wagner, one of the best minds in education today, details his extensive case studies in young innovators. From a teaching and parenting perspective, his insights into the key traits of raising and educating a kid who can take control of her life and make a difference in the world are priceless.

[Cathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit repetitive and heavy on anecdotes of exceptional innovators from affluent households. I wish it were more concrete: here is the recipe. But that's probably because I'm a part of the system that quashes innovative thought, even as I desire to change it. Interesting ideas but I'm at a loss how to apply them.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely gets readers to see concrete examples of students who are innovators and what type of education supports and constrains them! Wagner is a voice that should be listened to regarding how education (particularly secondary and post-secondary) needs to change.

[Desiree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging read-- has something to say for parents, teachers, and teacher educators. I found the most points of connection with the recommendations for higher ed-- how do we create opportunities for contemplation, play, and innovation more regularly than the every-seven-years sabbatical affords?

[Craig T. Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the subjects Wagner found. Through those conversations, he makes his point early and clearly. The rest of the book is filled with more and varied examples that prove out his hypothesis. I found this to be a helpful approach.

[Mrs. Evelyn Oros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for ALL!

[Duong Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For educators, this book is worth reading carefully and read it again dozen time.