The Falconer

What We Wish We Had Learned in School

A significant contribution to our search for true 21st Century education. -Bo Adams, Principal, Westminster Schools We would all trade a lot of knowledge for a little bit of wisdom. -Aaron Butler, Falconer Class of 1998 School prepares us to be successful. We aspire to be happy. -Robert Landis, Falconer Class of 2001 If we want to achieve elegant results we have to teach the tools of elegant thinking. We want our young people to develop the traits of our heroes: courage, compassion, creativity, leadership, invention, vision. We need our students and employees to learn the skills that will give them a competitive advantage in an interdependent world. Yet our schools and training centers are stuck in a 19th century model that ignores this fundamental goal. Geared toward the teacher and student in all of us, The Falconer provides a simple model for making the leap from passive learner of previous knowledge to an active creator of new ideas. Based on a five-year classroom trial, and now used by forward-looking educators to help build a 21st Century educational model, The Falconer adapts a novel interpretation of the classic book of strategy, The Art of War, to new goals of educational creativity and personal fulfillment. Grant Lichtman is the Chief Operating Officer of Francis Parker School in San Diego, California. He earned a bachelors and masters degree from Stanford University and has founded and managed companies involved in education, energy, and the geosciences. Lichtman, his wife Julie, and two children live in Poway, California.