Stockport bus station, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England and in the mid-distance is St Mary’s church and to the right is the Hat Museum

I spent last week in Istanbul, Turkey and Stockport, England helping institutions in Europe expand their online class offerings. While in Stockport, our host arranged for a tour of the Hat Museum. Stockport was the center of hat making for several hundred years and almost all hats made and sold from England had their origins in Stockport. Even the American classic Stetson was invented in Stockport.

As we were taking the tour, our guide explained the process of using mercury in a boiling vat to shrink the felt as the first part of the production process. Workers who were exposed to the noxious vapors emitted from this process often exhibited odd and aggressive behaviors and were described as being mad as a hatter. The toxic effects of mercury poisoning were discovered in 1829 and 35 years later, Lewis Carroll injected the Mad Hatter character in his classic tale, Alice in Wonderland. It wasn’t until 1941 that the demands for mercury in the war efforts forced the manufactures to agree to replace mercury with hydrogen peroxide in the production of hats.

Hat Works Museum

Why would the hat industry continue to subject the employees to such a toxic environment when they knew the devastating effects? Maybe it was easier just to continue to do it the way they always did it.

“Yeah, it may not be good but this is how I learned to make hats and this is the way we are going to make hats.”

Maybe the companies didn’t want to invest in new manufacturing equipment and retrain their employees. Maybe the employees would lose their jobs if they were replaced with technology and the companies.

Regardless of the reason, I am sure you are trying to figure out what this has to do with education or innovation, two things about which I am passionate. Well, we know some of the things we do now in higher education are not as effective as they once were; yet we continue to do them.

Classic Mad Hatter Style Hat

We claim to be scholars but yet ignore research on what learning styles are the most effective. We still allow faculty to be the sage on stage, lecturing to classes of students despite the compelling research indicating the brain activity of students during a lecture is similar to brain activity while watching TV.

Research shows students learn as well online as in they do in the classroom and that the most effective style is a hybrid class that blends online with an in-seat component. Just like hatters were hired for their skill at making hats, faculty members are hired for their subject matter expertise. Unlike the hat factory owners, who knew better but continued to poison their workforce, as administrators, we must be embrace what we know about learning and change our practices so that our graduates don’t end up mad as a hatter!

What practices are still in use at your institution that are making you, mad as a hatter? Share with me.

Non-native English speaking students trying to enter the higher education system in the United States face daunting challenges. Consider first the requirement at most institutions that a student have four years of high school English. The premise of the American Dream is that more education leads to increased socioeconomic status, guaranteeing a better life for the next generation. This premise, however, is complicated for non-English speaking students.

Don’t get me wrong – I firmly believe that if you are going to live and work in a country, you need to be proficient with the language. It is deeply engrained in my family history. My grandfather spoke no English when he arrived in the United States from Spain in 1918. He did not petition for the United States to adapt to his language nor did he expect signs to be written in Spanish. He learned the language on his own while working 50+ hours per week.

This may sound harsh, and I assure you that I am not criticizing immigrants seeking a better life. I am criticizing the people in the educational system who remain content with mediocre methodology for teaching language. There have been fabulous advances in the technology of learning driven by credible research. To me, it is simply unacceptable to use old tools to teach and assess language acquisition simply because it is how it has always been done in the past.

Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti

There are new ideas we should try that will not only speed the acquisition of languages, but also increase retention. Tim Ferriss tells the story of Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti who mastered 29 languages and was reported to be conversational in an additional eight by using translations of the Lord’s Prayer. Tim’s approach uses 13 basic sentences that he asserts contain all the components necessary for proficiency in any language.

It is time to step up our game. Cardinal Mezzofanti died in 1849, yet we have been reticent to embrace his style of language learning. The reason my grandfather came to America was to have a better life; that dream still drives millions a year to come to the United States. It is time to help them realize their their American Dream.

What are your thoughts regarding this topic? Have you found a viable solution? Are you as frustrated as I am? Share below or online and let’s start a dialog.