This is an excellent article about the heedlessness of the people who work in the intersection of philanthropy and capitalism.

They believe in disruption. Anything that has not yet been disrupted is ripe for disruption. If your life and your profession get tossed aside, that’s okay because you are “collateral damage.” The author, Martin Levine, calls this the “broken crockery” approach of the new philanthropy.

Read this. You will be astonished by the arrogance of the views expressed. They are people looking at the world from an executive suite high up in the stratosphere. Children and teachers look like ants to them. They are seeing like a state, moving around the lives of the little people below with utter disregard.

”As a new generation of wealthy corporate leaders turns from their businesses to solving the societal and global problems they see around them, they are fundamentally challenging the role of philanthropy and the nonprofit sector. From education to disaster relief, there is no problem that, they assert, can’t be attacked more effectively by adopting the lessons of corporate success. They saw their innovations as not just improvements, but breakthroughs. Their triumphs came from willingness to risk revolutionary approaches which disrupted existing technologies and markets.

“Devex’s recent coverage of the Global Skills & Education Forum illustrates some of the challenges of this approach. Describing from perspective of the educational sector, Lant Pritchett, research director at Research on Improving Systems of Education, told Devex, “In order to lead to transformational improvements, educational technology should be not sustaining technology but disruptive technology, reaching everyone with the kind of education they actually need, and that means going head to head with the education establishments.”

“Amy Klement, who leads the philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network’s education initiative globally, told Devex that “education is one of the few sectors that hasn’t been disrupted for hundreds of years. And the school model—everything from pedagogy to delivery to financing—has been very consistent.” In seeking ways to improve education, they are willing to break current systems; from their perspective, if current approaches to fixing societal problems were effective, the problems would have been solved long ago.”

Martin Levine asks,

”When innovations fail, lives and futures are at risk. While social investors can walk away, as Zuckerberg can from Newark or Gates can from schools affected by his various educational innovations, children and communities cannot. Who will be there to pick up the pieces?”