Keynote: Dr. Yong Zhao

I'm a fan of Dr. Yong Zhao, he's an engaging speaker and had the audience laughing often. I like his ideas about the problems with standardized testing and how they seem to be negatively correlated to innovation and other useful things.

He talks about how China's education system is admired by many countries, but actually seems to be stifling creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Instead, he proposes a "future-oriented education starting with each child instead of an authoritative prescription of knowledge and skills." 


In his opinion, things that matter are diversity of talents, creativity, entrepreneurship, passion and confidence.


There were great quote and one liners. I've taken these from Twitter and/or paraphrased them:
"Literacy shouldn't be the national goal; it should be the floor, not the ceiling."
"I would like common core as long as it's not common or the core."
"China has best education system and worst education system combined: High test scores, low creativity/innovation"
"The US education isn't in decline, it has always been bad."
"The problem is, American teachers care more about students than they do about math."
"Our kids are too happy and confident to be good at academics."
"American schools kill creativity less effectively."