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ally something they themselves were passionate about
teaching. Students who signed up for these electives had
some level of interest. And because there frequently was
no standardized test at the end, teachers could assign
group projects and innovative lessons.
Students also told Mehta and Fine that they cher-
ished the hours they spent after school working on ex-
tracurriculars: painting elaborate sets in the auditorium
for drama productions, or learning to hang stage lights,
or taking charge of a whole show as a stage manager or
student director. Although it is tempting to view extra-
curriculars through the prism of college admissions, the students told the re-
searchers that they valued the real-world nature of their extracurriculars, the way
that everyone worked together frantically to mount a theater production.
The book is a subtle indictment of the way we’re teaching our children in the
U.S., even in progressive, well-funded, reform-minded schools. But in its analysis
of what works and what doesn’t in American high school education, In Search of
Deeper Learning provides several helpful lessons for business executives. “People
learn well when they are motivated and have a purpose, and when they are parts
of communities that have different levels of expertise than they do,” Mehta told
me. “That has implications for businesses.”
When companies list the skills they expect incoming employees to have —
or the skills that make executives successful later in their career — they’re not
likely to include the ability to regurgitate the dates of the Crusades. Instead,
they’re looking for the skills that students get from an education filled with deep-
er learning: the ability to see connections across disciplines and time periods, to
collaborate in groups in order to achieve a goal that may be unknown at the start
or may change over time, and to understand why a math theorem makes sense.
If executives want their hires to have those skills, they should be advocating for a
school system that develops those skills in students.
The lessons the researchers gleaned from the best teachers they observed are
useful for managers as well. Those teachers stand out by sparking students’ inter-
est from the beginning of the school year with tasks and class projects that make