Kathy Sierra, who writes for Creating Passionate Users, is a learning guru disguised in marketing language like “sucks” and “kick ass” — which would get big frowns at an education conference.
Her illustration (above) from her post today demonstrates, in my opinion, that teaching to an “acceptable” level is leaving yet another generation of school students in limbo below the Kicking Ass Threshold. Success at school these days is to be above the Suck Threshold and failure is entering the drop-out zone. Our school system passes kids on to the next grade and gives them a diploma when they suck. I know I am twisting the language here, but I do so as a wake up call. The euphemisms of education are among its causes of mediocrity. We owe it to our kids to teach them how to kick ass. I would not attempt to explain Kathy’s brilliant analysis of her chart shown above. You can read it in her words here.
What then lets students move above the Kick Ass Threshold? First is to accept that essentially every kid can do it — which you have to figure out for yourself. Maybe you cannot accept that idea, in which case mediocrity (sucks) is the expectation for any generation.
For those who see the budding kicker in every kid, the new networked world is full of hope. In Marc Prensky’s new book, Don’t Bother Me Mom, I’m Learning, he mentions (p. 59) the “leveling up” factor as a reason kids work for hours with digital games. That Prensky says:
. . . means feeling yourself getting better at the game, and achieving mastery over something difficult and complex, something you couldn’t do when you started.
Compare that with the Kicking Ass Threshold:
I’ll keep pushing myself. There’s always some way to do it better . . .
Myself, I think moving learning into the kids’ own digital medium will move them past the era of the Suck Threshold.
