Most Likely To Succeed. Book Summary
Preparing Our Kids for the New Innovation Era
Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith
Scribner (27 Aug. 2015)
About The Authors
Tony Wagner is a globally recognized leader in education, currently serving as a Senior Research Fellow at the Learning Policy Institute. With over two decades at Harvard University, Tony has held roles such as Expert in Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His rich experience spans twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility. A prolific author, Tony’s works include the international bestsellers Creating Innovators and The Global Achievement Gap, as well as his memoir, Learning By Heart.
Ted Dintersmith is an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist, and advocate for education reform. After a successful career as a leading venture capitalist, he shifted his focus to improving education, emphasizing the need to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century. Ted is consumed with issues at the intersection of education and democracy. His films, books, keynotes, and philanthropy focus on the urgency of reimagining school to keep pace with the tsunami of innovation reshaping society. He is the founder and Chair of WhatSchoolCouldBe.org, a non-profit organization catalyzing progress in schools, districts, and states across America, and in countries around the globe.
About The Book
“We live in an innovation economy. In this new world, the skills necessary to do well professionally have converged with the skills needed to be an effective citizen. Fifty years ago, before the Internet, it made sense for schools to teach kids “just facts.” But in today’s world, there is no longer a competitive advantage in knowing more than the person next to you because knowledge has become a commodity available to all with the swipe of a finger. Now, adults need to be able to ask great questions, critically analyze information, form independent opinions, collaborate, and communicate effectively. These are the skills essential for both career and citizenship.
Yet developing these is precisely where our schools fall so short. As we churn out millions of kids each year from an education system that teaches and tests them on narrow aspects of content retention that any smartphone can handle, we set them up for failure, unhappiness, and social discontent. We are, in every important sense, educating our way to national demise. […]
Since information is readily available to everyone, content knowledge is no longer valued in the workplace. What matters most in our increasingly innovation-driven economy is not what you know, but what you can do with what you know. The skills needed in our vastly complicated world, whether to earn a decent living or to be an active and informed citizen, are radically different from those required historically.”
When our son was about to start school, we stumbled across Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, Do Schools Kill Creativity? (still the most-watched TED talk ever), and it completely flipped how we see the education system.
Robinson sparked a crucial conversation about why schools need to change, and since then, educators worldwide have been on a mission to revolutionize education.
Enter Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith with their game-changing book (and documentary) Most Likely to Succeed. This dynamic duo takes the education conversation to the next level, breaking down what’s wrong with the current system and reimagining how we can better prepare kids for the future. Drawing on recent research and real-world experience, they highlight the skills that truly matter in today’s innovation-driven world and lay out a practical framework for how schools can teach them. While the book is mostly about the American education system, its ideas resonate across Europe too—well, maybe not Finland, which is still the gold standard (and yes, they cover Finland in the book).
After reading, I also checked out their documentary, and it’s a must-watch for every parent and teacher. You can find it for free (for now) on WhatSchoolsCouldBe.org or stream it on Amazon.
Speaking of WhatSchoolsCouldBe.org, it’s an incredible resource. Founded by Ted Dintersmith and inspired by Ken Robinson’s vision, it’s loaded with practical tools like The Innovation Playlist. Definitely worth exploring.
The book is packed with brilliant ideas and thought-provoking discussions, so here is just a snapshot of my favourite takeaways. Let’s dive in!
Key Insights
Purpose of Education
As Ozan Varol says in Think Like a Rocket Scientist:
“Breakthroughs, contrary to popular wisdom, don’t begin with a smart answer. They begin with a smart question.”
So, if we’re serious about making real, meaningful changes to the education system, we need to ask the big, fundamental question: What is the purpose of education?
Wagner and Dintersmith offer a killer answer:
“The purpose of education is to engage students with their passions and growing sense of purpose, teach them critical skills needed for career and citizenship, and inspire them to do their very best to make their world better.”
It’s not about cramming low-level cognitive skills into kids’ brains (memorizing random facts they’ll forget after the test). It’s not about training them to perform repetitive tasks like robots. And it’s definitely not about snuffing out their creativity and ability to think outside the box.
Instead, it boils down to three powerful goals:
- Engage students with their passion
When students connect with what excites them, it supercharges their motivation and helps them lead productive, fulfilling lives. Passion isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a proven driver of success and happiness.
Still skeptical? Check out The Path to Purpose by William Damon or Ken Robinson’s The Element. Both are packed with evidence showing that finding and nurturing passions can transform a student’s life.
In the book, the authors mention this brilliant student-directed documentary by Rachel Wolfe. It shows how the pressure for perfection and a success-obsessed mindset kill students’ love for learning and creativity. Instead of using high school to explore what they’re passionate about and figure out who they are, it ends up turning their natural motivation into something driven by outside rewards.
- Teach them critical skills:
Yes, IQ matters. But in today’s world, soft skills like emotional intelligence (EQ), creativity, and communication are game-changers. Wagner and Dintersmith list seven essential skills for success:
- Critical thinking and problem-solving: The foundation of innovation.
- Collaboration and leadership: Working well with others and leading by example.
- Agility and adaptability: Thriving in an ever-changing world.
- Initiative and entrepreneurship: Turning ideas into action.
- Communication: Mastering oral, written, and digital storytelling.
- Accessing and analyzing information: Navigating the sea of data we swim in.
- Curiosity and imagination: The seeds of creativity and future breakthroughs.
- Inspire them
The world is a breathtaking, fascinating place. When kids see its beauty, challenges, and possibilities, they’re inspired to make it even better. Education should spark this sense of wonder and purpose, giving them the tools to turn inspiration into action.
These three goals—passion, skills, and inspiration—are a far cry from what most schools focus on today. But they’re the building blocks of an education system that truly prepares kids for life.
That leads us to the next insight.
Skills For Success In The Innovation Era
“The Wall Street Journal recently reported on several of our country’s most successful innovators: Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon), Larry Page and Sergey Brin (founders of Google), Julia Child, Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia), and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. The article suggested the Montessori School experience was the most important aspect of these influencers’ education, setting them on a life path of creativity, passion, self-direction, and comfort with failure and ambiguity. The Google founders were featured on a Barbara Walters/ABC special. When asked if having college professors as parents was important to their success, they said it wasn’t. Page explained, “We both went to Montessori school and I think it was part of that training of not following rules and orders, and being self-motivated, questioning what’s going on in the world, doing things a little bit differently.”
The Montessori experience resembles what adults do in innovative organizations. Montessori emphasizes collaboration, communication, self-direction, and risk-taking. There are no grades or tests, but teachers and other students give informed feedback. Kids take the lead in defining their goals, exploring passions, and learning about the world. It’s an environment of discovery, of inquiry, of working on something for long blocks of time instead of shifting gears every forty-five minutes. And kids are encouraged to take chances, fail, and iterate to an end goal of importance.”
That’s interesting, isn’t it? These schools are basically innovation incubators.
Meanwhile, conventional schools focus way too much on standardized tests, churning out students who may ace exams but lack the skills needed to thrive in the real world.
In the book, the authors take a no-nonsense look at what schools should actually be teaching—not just to drive innovation but to make sure kids are employable in a future dominated by automation and AI. And honestly? I was nodding along the entire chapter.
They break it down subject by subject, comparing the outdated stuff schools focus on now to what they should be teaching. Here’s a quick rundown of the skills kids actually need to crush it in the 21st century:
Maths:
- Deeply understanding the problem
- Structuring the problem and representing it symbolically
- Creative problem-solving
- Pattern recognition to understand which math “tools” are relevant
- Adept use of available computational resources
- Critical evaluation of first-pass results
- Estimation, statistics, and decision-making
- Taking chances, risking failure, and iterating to refine and perfect Synthesizing results
- Presenting/communicating complex quantitative information
- Collaboration
- Asking questions about complex quantitative information
Language Arts (aka Reading & Writing)
- Use sound vocabulary
- Read a wide variety of written materials (novels, poems, plays, essays, news) critically
- Communicate clearly across multiple media forms, with a range of styles
- Form and justify independent bold perspectives
- Ask thoughtful questions
- Engage in constructive debate
History:
- Critically analyze historical events and sources
- Form independent views on dynamics and implications
- Write clear and thought-provoking theses
- Ask questions and engage in constructive debate
- Relate historical developments to current issues shaping the world we live in
Science:
- Understand how the world works
- Be able to form and test scientific hypotheses
- Be able to ask insightful questions and design experiments
- Build things based on scientific principles
- Apply principles across disciplines
- Develop scientific creativity
Foreign Language:
- True proficiency in speaking
- Understanding cultures and the ability to navigate them
- Ability to collaborate across cultures
- Technology-leveraged polylinguality
These skills are a world apart from what most of us were taught in school! But it’s encouraging to see that more schools in the UK are starting to shift gears.
If you’re homeschooling your kids, this framework could be a fantastic way to structure their learning and prepare them for the future.
P.S: Not long ago, I came across a great book by Ulcca Joshi Hansen The Future of Smart where she argues for a shift to a holistic model, like Montessori, to prepare children for the future world – I strongly recommend checking out our notes.
Change The Priorities
“If we fill up the school year with second-order priorities, our kids won’t have time to learn the skills, or develop the characteristics, that they’ll need as adults. Our best teachers will leave the field. Accountability tied to a standardized-test regimen will absorb every hour in the school year. And when we stuff our classroom schedules with preparation for tests of low-level skills, what won’t we have time to do? What aren’t we teaching our kids?
Our choice is stark. We can continue training kids to be proficient at low-level routine tasks and to memorize content they won’t remember on topics they’ll never use. Or we can embrace the reality that much of what school is about today can be “outsourced” to a smartphone, freeing up time for kids to immerse themselves in challenges like the following:
- Learning how to learn.
- Communicating effectively.
- Collaborating productively and affectively with others
- Creative problem-solving
- Managing failure
- Effecting change in organisations and society
- Making sound decisions
- Managing projects and achieving goals
- Building perseverance and determination
- Leveraging your passions and talents to make your world better.”
Couldn’t agree more. These skills are crucial—not just for work, but for life. So why aren’t we prioritizing them as much as traditional academic skills? These are the things that help kids unlock their full potential, change lives, and drive progress we can’t even begin to imagine.
And this isn’t a new idea. Paul Tough dives into this in his excellent book How Children Succeed, breaking down the research and making a compelling case for teaching these character skills in schools. Martin Seligman, Carol Dweck, Angela Duckworth, Madeline Levine, Ellen Galinsky, and others are all beating the same drum.
It’s time we start listening.
Badges Instead of Tests
“Our Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops provide a role model for evaluating the progress of our youth. Scouts earn merit badges on the basis of demonstrated mastery of competencies, as judged by informed adults directly involved in the experience. To get a camping merit badge, kids practice and master the skills required to camp – they don’t jump through hoops by memorizing the names of various tent types. They get a cooking merit badge by learning how to cook-not sitting in a chair watching someone else cook for 150 hours and filling in multiple-choice questions about how long it takes to bake a potato. To become an Eagle Scout, they master core competencies and earn additional merit badges aligned with their interests. They don’t just hang around the troop for twelve years and avoid getting kicked out. This system has standards of achievement and accountability. Troop leaders have clarity in determining what constitutes acceptable levels of mastery to earn a merit badge. And their system trusts its adults to render appropriate judgments.
And guess what? No one obsesses about whether the standards for an Eagle Scout in Oklahoma are higher or lower than for an Eagle Scout in California, National Scout organizations don’t rank-order the monthly performance of every Scout in the United States on the basis of numbers tied to timed multiple-choice tests. Assessment is based on the judgment of trusted adults observing competencies.”
How brilliant is that? A system that actually focuses on mastery, not meaningless memorization or jumping through hoops. I absolutely loved this alternative to standardized tests — Merit Badges.
My boys’ school has a similar approach for math, and I can tell you, it works. Throughout the year, kids collect badges for their Key Instant Recall Facts, and they’re super motivated to earn them all. It turns learning into a challenge they want to take on, not just another thing to check off a list.
This kind of approach feels so much more human—and honestly, so much more effective.
Action Steps For You:
- Focus on skills, not grades: Imagine your child as a future innovator, leader, or creator—not just a student who aces tests. By prioritizing skills like critical thinking, creativity, and resilience, you’re preparing them for a world where adaptability matters more than report cards. Start small: replace “What grade did you get?” with “What did you learn?” Celebrate effort, growth, and problem-solving over perfection.
- Prioritise learning over memorisation: Instead of focusing on rote memorisation, encourage your child to ask “why” and “how” about the world around them. Dive into hands-on activities, let them experiment, and explore their curiosity. When kids connect learning to real-world problems and experiences, they retain knowledge longer and develop a genuine love for discovery. Make learning an adventure, not a checklist.
- Encourage autonomy and purpose: Your child has unique talents and passions just waiting to be explored. Give them the space to pursue what lights them up and guide them to see how their interests can make a difference in the world. Encourage them to take ownership of their choices, try new things, and learn from mistakes.
Quotes From The Book:
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“Students who only know how to perform well in today’s education system-get good grades and test scores, and earn degrees-will no longer be those who are most likely to succeed. Thriving in the twenty-first century will require real competencies, far more than academic credentials.”
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“I continue to believe that two of the most important skills in the innovation economy are in thinking critically (about problems, situations, markets, ideas) and then the ability to communicate (an idea, a recommendation, a plan forward) in a way that is not only thoughtful and compelling but also in a way that influences others to take action.” © Annmarie Neal
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“The mind of an engaged kid is a sponge; a mind that is lectured to is a leaky sieve.”
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“We need an education system that cares about the success of our kids, not the success of the standardized test industry.”
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“The impact of innovation on education isn’t in using technology to deliver obsolete education experiences. It lies in understanding what skills students need in the innovation era, and constructing classroom experiences that promote skills that matter.”
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“The goal must be to choose the academic content selectively so as to create the required foundation for lifelong learning, without letting the quest for content coverage overwhelm the development of core competencies.”
