Because the mind is humanity’s greatest natural resource, one might expect its cultivation to be the primary focus in every classroom from kindergarten through university. In reality, the schools have neglected the mind for almost a century.

     Course syllabi present long lists of topics to be “covered,” leaving little or no time for the kinds of challenges that develop students’ powers of mind. Standard textbooks do all the thinking for students, thus discouraging students from wondering, inquiring, discovering ideas, and reaching their own conclusions. Examinations typically restrict choices to pre-formed answers, thus preventing students from expressing nuance, qualification, or insight. Simply said, the education system requires teachers to tell students what to think rather than teach them how to think; and it expects students to receive, recall, and regurgitate information rather than to use and develop their minds.

     This neglect of the mind has denied five generations of men and women guided practice in solving problems, evaluating issues, and making decisions. The resulting loss of talent in business, the professions, and government is incalculable, as is the exacerbation of personal and social problems. But even more amazing than the scandal itself is the fact that few people are aware of it. If any other precious resource, such as gold or oil, were similarly wasted, there would be no way to suppress the story. Indeed, it would dominate the headlines. Yet the continuing neglect of the nation’s mental resources has been largely ignored.

• Critics and pundits lament declining test scores and behavioral problems yet say nothing about the mindlessness of the total learning experience.
  
• Educational reformers propose higher salaries, increased testing, smaller classes, and improved discipline but ignore the pessimistic view of the human mind that underlies the entire education system.
  
• Self-help publishers reinforce the deprivation among adults by offering strategies for feeling good rather than strategies for improving thinking skills.

     Special courses in critical thinking provide oases in the vast wasteland of mindlessness, but they are not enough. Every course in every curriculum should emphasize mindbuilding rather than mindstuffing.

     The main mission of MindPower, Inc. is to promote five interconnected ideas: 1) Intelligence is best understood not as something people have but as something they do; it is dynamic rather than static, observable but not quantifiable. 2) Because intelligence is a performance rather than a possession, it varies with the quality of one’s mental habits, attitudes, and skills. 3) Mental habits, attitudes, and skills can be improved. 4) Their improvement should be the primary goal of every educational institution. 5) For the good of the nation, every individual, profession, agency, and industry should encourage and, where possible, assist the schools in meeting this goal.

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