“Professor Cabrera is the Einstein of Education. His ideas will challenge everything you thought you knew about teaching and learning."  - Mary Ann Ryan, Assistant Superintendent, City of Fairfax Public Schools

Some time ago, my colleague, Dr. Laura Colosi, and I realized that we shared a common frustration that our students at Cornell University--an Ivy League school that presumably attracts some of the best students our American education system has to offer--arrived unable to think. Our students could pass any test we gave them, but when we asked these students to solve an unstructured problem or to complete a task in which the instructions were sparse, they struggled mightily. We saw this lack of thinking skills all around us. In society at large, in our own university students, and in research and practice. What we found was that every educator we spoke to believed that thinking skills were of paramount importance but most of them also had no idea how to teach thinking or how to blend it into the curriculum. It was as if our educational system--knowing the importance of thinking skills--merely wished for some kind of miracle. Teachers and schools alike simply hoped that if we jammed enough facts into student's heads, they would somehow magically learn to think, too. They were crestfallen when Dr. Colosi and I relayed to them that the miracle never happened; that our cream-of-the-crop students at Cornell could not think. We don't need a miracle to teach thinking, we need a method.

It was then that Dr. Colosi and I realized that we could no longer be satisfied merely to publish our work in technical journals that only a few experts would ever read. Thus began an exciting journey. We started ThinkWorks to be a catalyst for educational change by teaching a powerful method for teaching thinking skills alongside the curriculum, from PreK to PhD.

Our Vision is audacious: "Thinking at Every Desk." We want to teach every teacher, every student, every government official, every CEO, every parent, and every employee in America to think.

As educators, we are preparing students for jobs that don't exist, that will use technology not yet invented, to solve unknown problems in a society we can only imagine. Our vision is to help society prepare for this future, by preparing every student to think.

As research scientists, we know that our students are better prepared for an uncertain future if we balance between teaching them "what to know" (content knowledge) and "how to know" (thinking skills). As parents and educators we know that the over-emphasis on test scores and standards is creating children who are information-full but not knowledge-able. As Americans, our Constitution tells us that the government "derives its just powers from the consent of the governed"; but if the governed are not thinking, then their consent is meaningless. Thinking is not merely a developmental imperative for each student, it lies at the core of our American competitiveness, and it is also patriotic.

We invite you to join us in our Vision to bring thinking skills to every desk. Contact us to find out how.

-- Derek Cabrera, Ithaca, NY