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Kids are capable of learning far more, far faster than traditional education methods allow for. They are already doing it mostly on their own, living and playing in a far more complex environment than the one their parents grew up in. I occasionally wonder if I'd have become a chess champion, had my home and neighborhood in 1960s Baku possessed the countless diversions available to kids today.

As with every generation of parents, I lament all the distractions pulling at the attention of my youngest kids, but this is their world, and we need to prepare them for it, not futilely attempted to shield them from it. Kids thrive on connections and creation, and they can be empowered by today's technology to connect and create in limitless ways. The kids who go to schools that embrace this empowerment most ably will thrive. That our classroom still mostly look like they did a hundred years ago isn't quaint, it's absurd. How can a teacher or even a stack of books be the sole source of information for kids who can access the sum of all human knowledge in seconds from a device in their pockets, and do so far more quickly than their teachers or parents? The world is changing too quickly to teach kids everything they need to know. They must be given the methods and means to teach themselves. This means creative problem solving, dynamic collaboration, online and off, real-time research, and the ability to modify and make their own digital tools.

Despite the affluence and high level of technology in the United States, Western Europe, and in Asia's traditional economic leaders, the potential for rapid change in education is likely in the developing world. There is little reason for them to try to catch up to the developed world by imitating education methods that are becoming obsolete. Just like the people in many poorer nations have adopted smartphones and virtual currencies, while skipping the steps of personal computers or traditional banking, they can adopt dynamic new education paradigms very quickly, since there are fewer existing structures to replace. They are aided by how far we have come in making powerful technology easily accessible.

A room full of kids can assemble their own digital textbooks and syllabus in a few minutes of drag and drop on a tablet, collaborating from the very start. I know it's possible because I've seen it done with chess courses. The kids can access new material on demand and the instructors might be anywhere in the world, available 24-7 instead of only during school hours.

Wealthy nations approach education in the same way a wealthy aristocratic family approaches investing. The status quo has been good for a long time, why rock the boat? I've spoken at many education conferences in the past few years from Paris to Jerusalem to New York, and I've never seen such a conservative mindset in any other sector. Not only the administrators and bureaucrats, but the teachers and parents as well. Everyone except for the kids. The prevailing attitude is that education is too important to take risks. My response is that education is too important not to take risks. We need to find out what works and the only way to do that is to experiment. The kids can handle it, they're already doing it on their own. It's the adults who are afraid.

— Deep thinking by G. K. Kasparov