Creating Innovators

The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World

By: Tony Wagner

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

In this groundbreaking book, education expert Tony Wagner provides a powerful rationale for developing an innovation-driven economy. He explores what parents, teachers, and employers must do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators. In profiling compelling young American innovators - such as Kirk Phelps, product manager for Apple’s first iPhone, and Jodie Wu, who founded a company that builds bicycle-powered maize shellers in Tanzania - Wagner reveals how the adults in their lives nurtured their creativity and sparked their imaginations, while teaching them to learn from failures and persevere. Wagner identifies a pattern: a childhood of creative play leads to deep-seated interests, which in adolescence and adulthood blossom into a deeper purpose for career and life goals. Play, passion, and purpose: These are the forces that drive young innovators.

Wagner explains how we can apply this knowledge as educators and what parents can do to compensate for poor schooling. He takes listeners into the most forward-thinking schools, colleges, and workplaces in the country, where teachers and employers are developing cultures of innovation based on collaboration, interdisciplinary problem-solving, and intrinsic motivation. The result is a timely, provocative, and inspiring manifesto that will change how we look at our schools and workplaces, and provide us with a road map for creating the change-makers of tomorrow.

©2012 Tony Wagner (P)2012 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"In this fascinating book, Tony Wagner addresses one of our most urgent questions: How do we create the next generation of innovators? By telling the stories of young creators, and by taking us inside cutting-edge programs, Wagner shows that the answer isn't to double-down on outmoded, formulaic solutions - but to embrace the principles of play, passion, and purpose. Creating Innovators is important reading for anyone concerned about the future." (Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind)

"In the equation of world success, superior innovation is the only factor that can keep America #1. Two passionate citizens, innovators in their own right, have produced a compelling prescription for our time. Read it, watch it, and spread the word." (Mitch Daniels, Governor, State of Indiana)

"To combat the competitive threat from economies like Brazil, Russia, India and China, we must develop empowered entrepreneurs and innovators. Creating Innovators is a masterful work that shows us how. Tony Wagner's case studies reveal more about these fine innovators than he may have realized. World leaders, business executives, educators, policy makers and parents, take note!" (Dr. Annmarie Neal Founder, Center for Leadership Innovation and former Chief Talent Officer, Cisco Systems)

Read, Don't Act

What did you love best about Creating Innovators?

Very revealing hearing the backgrounds of so many of today's innovators. Many implications for parents and schools alike.

Who was your favorite character and why?

N/A

What didn’t you like about Holter Graham’s performance?

Ridiculous, horrible attempts at "acting" like each person described in the book, male or female, American, European, African, etc. It is actually very, very distracting and annoying. Just R-E-A-D the story! I would be very, very hesitant to purchase any further audio books that Graham had recorded.

Some good information but gets bogged down

The first chapters which lay out the authors premise and the last sections relating to educating and parenting differently have some very good information. But most of the book gets bogged down in stories and interviews that are not that interesting or helpful. This would be a better book of it were shorter and in two volumes- one for parents and one for educators. Also if the stories were edited down to their essentials with an appendix to contain detail. The narrator had a pleasant voice and good energy, but was often too “dramatic” for the nature of what he was reading, making it seem forced and fake.

A must-read for raising happy kids

This book validated everything we did as parents, and made me wish I could do it all over again! Great insights throughout.

Intriguing

Wagner shares a plethora of perspectives and genuinely seeks out what helped and harmed innovators. It can be easy to tune out because the testimonials can run on from time to time. I recommend for parents, those trying to figure out how to inspire millennials or teachers trying to do their best to operate within a broken educational system.

Loved the book.

The narrator was a little hard to listen too, but the message was great!! Thanks for a great book!

Love this Outlook

Everyone in education needs to listen to this. It was very eye opening and might give you a new outlook on this new generation.

Excelent book about educating for the needs of today

I liked the direct approach and broad examples of entrepreneurs and innovative young people. This book is excelent for parents and educators about the education needs of this new generation so they can fulfill their potential.

Starts slow.

the information in the book is great. unfortunately he takes forever to get to any of the real information. There's a lot of stories initially. But once you get past that the information is great.

Great research. Please stop with the accents.

This is very insightful research. I found researcher's argument compelling and inspiring. I appreciate the vast array of practical examples from participants and theoretical framework used to explain their impetus. The reader is good, but occasionally distracts attention from valuable content with his accented quotes from participants in study.

Fabulous information!

What will the challenges be for our children as they assimilate into today's rapidly changing workforce? What skills and knowledge will help them succeed? What are other countries doing successfully to prepare their young people for their future? What can we do as parents, teachers, educators, and employers to encourage our children to find their "American Dream"? The author lays out ideas that are replicatable for those interested. As a homeschooling mom of 2 young girls, I'm excited to learn about what innovative ways of thinking will most benefit my my children in the future.