Rethinking Education

There is a striking difference between the life we are dreaming of and the actual way we live, for many of us. It is called a failure.

The education system is designed to produce people, who are foredoomed to fail, everywhere on Earth. Present society, incapable of dealing properly with environmental and economic problems; its poor leadership, terrorism, corruption are all results of education in a certain way.

The near future is already beyond our imagination, but in education we are trying to improve, to tune the old system — do the same thing, but a little better. What will the result look like? Answer is simple: a better, more precise failure. Today there is still a chance to survive in the education, a chance for curiosity and creativity not to be wiped out. With “improved education” — tests instead of thinking, summaries instead literature, theorems without proofs, classes of 40+ children and other “improvements” this chance will be minimal.

Every child is unique. Unarguable. But why then they all are educated the same way? And still many are surprised when something goes wrong after such education.

There is a principle used all over the place by governments and by parents. “Pay money for education and everything will be fine”. It doesn’t work anymore. Money is no more enough. Educational institutions can no more be treated as a perfect machine for producing successful people. Today they produce failure. And when I see young laughing children playing at snowballs near my home, I feel fear because these are just about to enter the education factory, this ultimate machine that leaves no-one untouched.

Time has come to rethink education, to transform it, as Sir Ken Robinson says.

There are two ultimate goals of the new education:

1. Help people to discover the passion inside. Every human indeed is better than he looks like. He just needs a chance. A chance to discover the passion.
2. Teach people to be prepared for unexpected changes. Sir Ken gives great illustrative examples in his remarkable speeches on why we are responsible for our children to be prepared for change.

I believe, education with these goals implemented is possible. And we are responsible for implementation. We, the lucky ones, who have access to information and communication. We have much more opportunities to think, communicate and take action than ever before. What are we waiting for?

The world won’t change in the way we want it to change without the effort, the tremendous effort. Culture won’t rise without particular persons taking responsibility for educating children well.

What are the actions required?

At first, there is one BIG action. Most simple. Most important. Most difficult for many.

Pay attention… Pay attention

What makes a remarkable teacher, a teacher who inspire, who spark the thoughts? (By the way, I bet you would wish to have met more of such unforgettable teachers in your life.) The first thing that makes a remarkable teacher and a remarkable parent is attention — they pay attention.

Now, I would like to give you a list of things necessary for the new education:

• Forget kindergartens — parents should stay with children during first years, the most important period.
• Educating healthy living.
• Educating creativity and curiosity.
• Guarding the kids from the raging media madness, at least for early years.
• Rethinking the social status of the teacher.
• Teaching different children differently.
• Educating compassion.
• Telling the stories of people who are behind books, formulas, theories and dates.

Of course there are more. I am sure you can add some valuable items to this list.

To conclude, we should devote our forces to transform education. Much work is ahead of us.

My today’s message to every parent and every teacher — pay attention to the children. Whatever it takes, pay attention. Their life worth it a thousand times.

Leading photo by BaLLYoOo.

http://thatistoothin.com/