KIPP, SIPP and HIPP

KIPP - Knowledge Is Power Program, is a well known success story in education. So well known, that it keeps popping up in conversation 5000 miles from their nearest location. With their strong message connecting knowledge to personal power, rather than to geekness, they manage to motivate students who otherwise would have been likely to drop out of school. Just to make sure this doesn't appear too easy, note that the message comes with a method and with powerful leadership.

Keeping a good hold of my admiration to KIPP, I allow myself a few thoughts about the raw message of Knowledge Is Power: What is the best route to personal power in the 21^st and 22^nd centuries? One line of acquirable traits includes Knowledge, Skills, Habits and Values. Values are so far from consensus that it would be good to leave them alone for now. Of Knowledge, Skills and Habits, which is the best equipment for practicing personal power in the adult world? Which enables a person to gain employment, association and the ability to create new things as that person judges valuable? Let's consider a valuable project, in need of people. For the discussion, we can think of The Project as a person, meeting people and other projects, wanting, considering, etc. Quite like the anthill in Godel, Escher, Bach. In real life the project may itself be a person, an organization, or an undertaking by either.

Knowledge in itself is pinpointed in time: What do you know about the subject right now? Knowledge in the 21^st century is also something relatively easily acquired, and most importantly, quickly becomes obsolete. One way for knowledge to become obsolete is by a new theory or fact superseding an old one: When I was a child, I knew the planet Mercury showed the Sun the same face all the time, creating a hot half and a cold half in the planet. Now this is known (?) not to be the case. Another way for knowledge to become obsolete is that pretty soon nobody cares about the subject. Still, even raw knowledge can be very useful: When The Project meets a person with great knowledge relevant to something The Project does, The Project may ask them for consultation in the short term, in order to overcome The Project's own lack of knowledge. This is good for the knowledgeable person. It is employment, it is influence, it is association with The Project, it is indeed power.

Skills have a longer lifespan than raw knowledge. They often take longer to acquire - for example acquiring a language. Skills often enable the carrier to continuously acquire new knowledge, either by being able to read books in a foreign language, or just by employing learning skills to learn new knowledge in any subject. Skills may also become obsolete: Does anyone care if I know how to use a slide-rule? Skills can be very useful: When The Project meets a person with skills relevant to something The Project does - either for learning or doing - The Project may offer them long term employment, since the skilled person is likely to grow their useful knowledge together with the changes in The Project's needs. So, even more power to the person with skills.

Habits have the longest lifespan. They take a lifetime to develop and maintain. During our impressionable years (1-90) they take effort just to preserve. Notwithstanding certain regimes, the habit of approaching the unknown with curiosity hasn't ever become obsolete in human history, and probably pre-history. Habits of learning, habits of taking responsibility, habits of facing difficulty - these can be great assets. When The Project meets a person with desirable habits, The Project would be wise to offer that person permanent association, and possibly the opportunity to lead The Project or spawn new Projects. Powerful stuff.

One more habit should be mentioned in the context of KIPP: The habit of doing. Rather than just write a book (or a blog), the KIPP founders created and are running a successful chain of school. That's a powerful habit, with evident results.