it several times, even mute me if they want,” says Fisch, who emphasizes that he didn’t come up with the idea, nor is he the only teacher in the country giving it a try. “That allows us to work on what we used to do as homework when I’m there to help students and they’re there to help each other.” When he puts it like that, you want to slap your forehead at the idea’s inexorable logic. You wonder why more schools aren’t doing it this way.
That’s the power of flipping. It melts calcified thinking and leads to solutions that are simple to envision and to implement. Consider the publishing industry. Publishers typically launch a book by issuing a pricey hardcover. Then, after a year or so, they publish a less expensive paperback. But the marketing guru and author Seth Godin has proposed flipping the sequence—especially for books that aren’t written by celebrity chefs or aging movie stars. Why not, Godin has proposed, put out the cheaper paperback—or even an e-book—first? Readers are more likely to gamble on an unknown author when they can risk $10 rather than $30.
FLIP 40