"You never change things by fighting the existing reality." R. Buckminster Fuller

One day in the library stacks, I was searching for a book by Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences theory. Coincidentally, the book next to it was a slim volume entitled, R. Buckminster Fuller on Education edited by Wagschal & Kahn (1979). I had read his Operation Manual for Spaceship Earth in the 1970's, and visited one of his geodesic domes in Montreal at Expo '67.
I took it home and read it in one sitting, then reread it and went back to the library for 6 more books by Fuller. His ideas are probably 100 years ahead of his time, and long out of favor in the popular imagination.

But consider this in the context of education reform...

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - R. Buckminster Fuller

This is sound advice. Recall what happened to horses and buggies, iceboxes, vinyl records, 8-track cassettes and slide rules.


Wagschal, P. & Kahn, R. (Eds.). (1979). R. Buckminster Fuller on Education. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press.