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Why Peter Thiel’s $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education

Posted November 4th, 2010 in Human Capacity | View Comments 415.252.7818 bob@roberthouser.com

Peter Thiel is an almost mythical figure in Silicon Valley. A founder a PayPal and the first institutional funder of Facebook, Thiel has used his billion+ not just to fund new companies, but to support a variety of future-oriented initiatives. The newest on the list — 20 $100,000 fellowships for students under 20 to drop out of undergrad to build companies instead — has aroused serious ire. Ironically, the $100k dropout grant could end up being good for education by demonstrating how it needs to evolve.

From an evolutionary perspective, education is how we transfer knowledge from one generation to the next. It’s our collective downpayment on the promise that we give our children a chance to have a better life than our own. But in the post-Industrial Revolution world, formal education became primarily about training people to become part of a mechanized workforce. The Liberal Arts education was designed to help future leaders learn how to interpret and synthesize knowledge.

Much of what we teach now remains important. Giving every person an understanding of math and science is essential for helping them understand the natural laws that govern the world. Introducing people to the classics of literature, art, and philosophy is essential to help anchor them in the ongoing pursuit for understanding that transcends our immediate condition. And giving people the ability to situate themselves in history is simply essential for helping them learn from past mistakes.

But if much of the content we teach remains important, both the content we leave out and the mechanisms we use to deliver education leave our system fundamentally and, in some cases, fatally, flawed. We can’t not teach students how to collaborate, how to work in teams, how to understand relationships, how to work across boundaries of language and nationality and expect them to succeed in the 21st century. More prosaically, I think we’re insane not to teach them computer science and design from kindergarden on.

We also can’t keep teaching students with the same methods we do today. A teacher standing in front of a class for eight hours, forcing figures and facts that will appear on tests is a sure way to lose an entire generation. These methods not only miss the opportunity to leverage young people’s natural proclivity for collaboration and creativity, they actually undermine and harm those increasingly vital capacities. The education of the future has to be designed to take advantage of the ways people learn natively – through interaction and curiosity.

More than anything, for the next generation of education to succeed, it has to recognize the incredible diversity and variety of intelligences and capacities that make people successful. This is more than just ensuring that we have art and music class (although that is vital). It’s about a fundamental re-imagining of the way in which education can amplify and enable people’s natural capacities.

No other moment in economic history has held as much potential for multiple intelligences to lead to viable careers. Our growing knowledge and relationship economy creates phenomenal opportunities to help people follow their passions and make a life of it.

In this new world, however, there will be some for whom any structured education just simply fails in comparison to the experience of doing and building things in real life. These are the people for whom Thiel is offering his $100k grant to not go to (or continue with) undergraduate education. There is simply no way these students are going to be served by even a dramatically reformed education system.

One of the legitimate risks of a grant like this is that students who would be well suited to a college education aspire to the Thiel fellowship instead, simply because it exists and gets sexy through media attention. Ultimately, the cure for that aspiration problem isn’t a tear-down of the Thiel Fellowship, but a smarter broader conversation about how we help students find their right path. Ironically, the virulent critiques of the Fellowship do more to centralize it as the new aspirational model than anything that Thiel himself has said. In fact, he’s been pretty clear that it’s not even meant to suggest that college isn’t the right thing for the majority of the millions who go each year.

The point of all this is that the key to the next generation of education is finding ways to unleash the full array of human capacity. Thiel’s grant does that for one very specific type of person, and you can bet that if they can find the right people, we’ll all gain from it.

If you’re interested in these sort of issues, check out our friends over at Skillshare who are working to enable a whole new approach to learning.

  • http://blog.assetmap.com Nathaniel Whittemore

    I’m hoping that someone seriously refutes this. There are lots of good arguments against what I’m saying… :)

  • http://twitter.com/nlw/status/29690944995 Nathaniel Whittemore

    Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS (via @assetmap)

  • http://twitter.com/assetmap/status/29691017676 Assetmap

    Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS (re: @peterthiel 's new 20under20.org)

  • http://twitter.com/socialentrprnr/status/29691054186 Nathaniel Whittemore

    Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/gregorymiller/status/29691389779 gregory miller

    RT @assetmap: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/probablykate/status/29691602154 Kate

    RT @socialentrprnr: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/traestephens/status/29692713103 Trae Stephens

    Awesome blog post RT @nlw: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS (via @assetmap)

  • http://twitter.com/nlw/status/29693058028 Nathaniel Whittemore

    Thanks Trae! RT @traestephens Awesome blog post RT @nlw: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/azmegb/status/29694115925 Megan Brauner

    why the dropout grant is good for education http://ow.ly/34Bfg

  • http://twitter.com/skillshare/status/29694819105 Skillshare

    Why Peter Thiel’s $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education: http://bit.ly/aAP1eH

  • http://twitter.com/alldaybuffet/status/29694829686 All Day Buffet

    RT @skillshare Why Peter Thiel’s $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education: http://bit.ly/aAP1eH

  • http://twitter.com/kusti/status/29697776514 Juho Makkonen

    RT @socialentrprnr: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/cinzano/status/29700480403 vj gakhar

    RT @skillshare: Why Peter Thiel’s $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education: http://bit.ly/aAP1eH

  • http://twitter.com/sengseng/status/299561495035904 Amy Senger

    chatting w/ @jaycross @devlearn on Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS #dl10

  • http://twitter.com/pcdnetwork/status/325069226123265 Craig Zelizer

    RT @socialentrprnr Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/davidsoloff/status/371945409355778 David Soloff

    maybe Thiel takes his own grant to dropout from Clarium seeing as he's down 17.1% through October? http://bit.ly/aCbSb2 #jumpedtheshark

  • http://twitter.com/etpickett/status/411029267812352 Emmett T. Pickett
  • http://twitter.com/tactphil/status/579354962698241 S. Stannard-Stockton

    Paypal founder Peter Thiel is offering $100k grants to get kids to DROP OUT of college. Is it good for education? http://ow.ly/350V9

  • http://twitter.com/jpatnosh/status/581405742473217 jpatnosh

    Stupid idea of the day! Paypal founder Peter Thiel offering $100k grants to get kids to DROP OUT of college http://ow.ly/350V9

  • http://twitter.com/circarigel/status/581741391642625 CircaRigel

    RT @tactphil Paypal founder Peter Thiel offering $100k grants 2 get kids 2 DROP OUT of college. Is it good for education? http://ow.ly/350V9

  • SnoopDougieDoug

    Let’s call a duck a duck. This is gambling with the future of gullible young people. The wager is that $100K versus the typical $1M that college grads make over non-grads. Given the typical over confidence of youth, expect more would gamble with an unknown future. Run the game over 20 years and see how many takers rue their decision.

  • http://twitter.com/iccmaggie/status/717893884968960 Maggie Stevens

    Interesting way to try to transform #highered. Paypal founder offers grants for students who DROP OUT of college. http://ow.ly/350V9 #fb

  • http://www.brigidslipka.com Brigid

    Thanks for the thoughtful perspective. My knee-jerk reaction was similar to the ire you cite above. But fair points that there are only 20 awards, and that’s not even a tenth of a percent of kids in college.

    I’m not exactly sure how this will prompt educators to change their ways, though. I agree that there’s a lot to be desired in the current structure, particularly in higher ed. But I believe the change won’t happen because of 20 kids dropping out, but will be more likely the result of some bubble popping of graduates not being able to pay back student loans, loan companies beginning to refuse to make more, and hundreds of thousands suddenly not going to school because they can’t afford it on their own dime. When 30-70% of students are dropping out of school, then administrators will have be forced to change education to something that’s worth paying for out of pocket upfront.

  • http://blog.assetmap.com Nathaniel Whittemore

    I think that this is a fair worry – and the one I bring up a bit above. There may be a whole lot more 20 year olds who think they have world changing potential at 20 than actually do. I guess, on this point, I would be placing my faith in the people doing the selection to make smart bets.

    I also think its hard to make such a clean financial comparison as you do ($100k vs. $1m extra from college). For one, you’re leaving out the $200k that college costs. Second, winning this grant is going to be a) prestigious enough and b) come with enough potential to build connections and social capital that the kids who get it – even if their ventures seriously flame out – are going to be embedded in a very powerful position. What’s more, I’m positive that colleges will recognize the eliteness of it and if students decide they want to go back, I would imagine the open doors will be waiting.

  • http://blog.assetmap.com Nathaniel Whittemore

    I think it’s a good point to be clear about what this can’t do for education. To your point, there is no way that this one thing is going to be enough of a cultural force that it’s going to get educators to change.

    That said (and this may be my inner skeptic coming out), I don’t really think anything is going to change colleges except incremental change wrought by bottom up pressure and creation from students. That’s a long process, and in the meantime, there are whole groups of students that are being dramatically underserved. The group that could win this grant are only one tiny example of those underserved groups, but I’m glad there’s something there for them.

  • http://twitter.com/itsthomas/status/993197824155651 Thomas Kriese

    It shows a way education needs to evolve. RT @assetmap: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • Denise C. Neal

    How do prospective applicants qualify to be selected–what is the process?

  • http://blog.assetmap.com Nathaniel Whittemore

    Hi Denise – The application is available on the Thiel Foundation’s website: http://www.thielfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15&Itemid=19

  • http://twitter.com/nspirenetwork/status/1740092901167105 Nspire

    Peter Thiel is offering $100,000 for students to….dropout! http://bit.ly/9C3l1U

  • http://twitter.com/ramhadji/status/1985476214923265 Ram Abubakar Hadji

    RT @assetmap: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/mitefcmb/status/2030460284706817 Amy Goggins

    RT @assetmap: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/collinvine/status/2179802060554240 Collin Vine

    How would you like to make $100k instead of spending 4yrs and thousands of dollars at university? http://ow.ly/37dvo

  • http://twitter.com/peerlearning/status/2727523829948417 Mark Frazier

    RT @skillshare: Why Peter Thiel’s $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education: http://bit.ly/aAP1eH

  • http://twitter.com/nlw/status/4263470430167040 Nathaniel Whittemore

    "The Revolution in Cool" http://otf.me/6ql now most read @assetmap post ever, ahead of Thiel's $100k dropout grant http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • http://twitter.com/pepsicanada/status/4265059308015616 PEPSI Canada

    RT @nlw: "The Revolution in Cool" http://otf.me/6ql http://bit.ly/brNBKS (DA)

  • http://twitter.com/allison811/status/13723427802193920 Allison

    RT @assetmap: Why Peter Thiel's $100k Dropout Grant is Good for Education http://bit.ly/brNBKS

  • aguyiknow

    Starting and running a business is an education in and of itself.  If those kids have any chance of succeeding they are going to have to study harder than they ever have in their lives.
    Take the study and couple it with the interpersonal skills necessary to keep an army of lazy, ungrateful, irresponsible, demanding slugs from sucking your capital dry with no results to show for it and you have an education.  Whether they win or lose the journey will teach them more than they could ever learn in school.
    It’s one thing to study something.  It’s quite another to live it.

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