“Apprentice Style” Education

Instead of being a teacher and students, we should be mentors and protege. We are helping give them experiences they need to succeed.

“The Apprentice” works because it divided people into two groups and gave them the same assignment, which they interpreted in different ways. They were then judged by how successful they completed the challenge:

-Sometimes they won because they went out of the box.
-Other times they won because the other group strayed too far from the criteria. 

-Sometimes it was because they were more successful: having more people come to their event or raising more money. 

Could you imagine if the classroom was made into this “Apprentice Style” Education? The teacher could assign the task in large groups, small, groups, pairs, or individuals. The teacher could set these groups differently each time to ensure different groups of students worked together. At the beginning, there would be a set objective with open-ended interpretation. 

1. Project Manager: When working in groups, there should always be a project manager and people need to pick different roles. Who is the best artist in the group? Maybe they design the posters. Who wont stay on task? Lets assign them to work with someone who is vigilant. At first Project Manager should be by volunteer, with the understanding that everyone should have a turn with it at least once. 
2. “The Boardroom”: Debrief time. In the classroom, you should have students go around and talk about what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve next time. They should focus mainly on self-improvement, but if there was someone not pulling their weight, it should be modeled in a respectful way. (“X, it made me frustrated when we were all working and you were siting in the corner and not participating” X would get a chance to respond and students can give suggestions on how to improve this behavior in the future) 
3. “You’re Fired”: Members of the different groups could then vote on which project they thought was successful of the original assignment instead of the teacher picking a winner. 

Instead of focusing on small assignments, you could be focusing on real practical experiences. How do you have a fundraiser dinner? How would you write and market a kids book? Art Gallery? Newspaper/magazine/radio/tv show? Sport tournament? Auction? Carnival? Pop-up cafe? Marathon? Community clean-up? Tour company? A shop? A lawn business? All of those are invaluable life experiences. 

How do you poll people? How do you modify what you want to do with what your audience wants? How do you modify with your budget or time constraints? It involves so much design thinking and problem-solving. Such a great way to look at education in a pretty easy to replicate format!