The unbearable lightness of the being and the importance of education.

You may have heard that the XXI century will not be distinguished by the ideas but how we share our knowledge and socialize with the world.  Innovation will come along global social relations and international integration between different civilizations.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean we will stay away from warfare, poverty, social revolutions, or bids for power.  Hopefully this century will be the beginning of a more equitable world that will fight against all our human miseries. 
 

One of the first choices to succeed in this new era is to reeducate ourselves.  We need to stop promoting old fashioned education methods that don´t meet the minimum requirements of our ideal society.

 Our education system hasn`t been innovated during the past century and we are asking ourselves to rethink it with the same old mind structures we developed when we were kids.

 

This is our current educational system

Toddlers:  Most time spent at kinder garden rather than home.

Children:  Basics are learnt in school with different teachers.
Kids: Competition is promoted between school mates.
Teenagers: Have to learn history from 3000 b.C.to present plus be knowledgeable in math, literature, language, science, etc.  Expected to play an instrument, play sports, speak two or more languages (even if they don´t want to).
Adults: Not an expert in any subject. 

 

Finland current educational system (one of the best in the world)

Toddlers and Children:  Learn the basics at home and don´t start school until they turn 7 years old. Best professors are assigned to younger students while the basics are learnt.  

Kids: Have the same school teacher for most subjects in order to promote emotional security.  No competition is promoted between school mates since there are no numerical grades until fifth grade. 

Teenagers and Adults: Education is free from pre-school until University.  Less hours attending school and less homework assigned (comparing to European countries).  Assisting to libraries, theatres and cinemas are coordinated as part of the training.

As you have seen, we have not spoken about skills, abilities, strengths, expectations or passion in our education system.  We request our new generations to be passionate while not hearing their interests. 

Many of our ancestors  worked their whole life for the same company and that was the best reward you could ever imagine! Now, tell me about a company which would hire you for a lifetime or an individual who would sign a leonine clause job contract until he/she dies?

Here is a fair example of how our education and labor system currently works:

 

As you can see, it is very inappropriate the measure stick we are using to gauge people´s skills, abilities and aptitudes.  Why are we delaying a change that is beneficial to the humankind?

I strongly believe that it is time to develop new methodologies in order to enhance our education system.  I have no doubt that children should learn the principles of every school subject.  But problems come later, when we do not focus on every student’s ability. 

What if we have governments, schools and parents encouraging children to develop their abilities when they are still young? It is a fact that when we do what we are really passionate about, there is no regret and everything seems to flow better. 

As Confucio and Csikszentmihályi suggested: ¨If you are passionate about something and moreover you have the skills to perform, you will never work again because you live the life you wished for¨.

What happens if we have a child who is passionate about numbers? Does he get to wait until he finishes schools to pursue his career in Finance, for example?

We could create methodologies and tools that provide this group of children who loves numbers to spend some quality time focusing on numbers. Why not having schools that are focused on math or finance? Wouldn’t we be building the talented leaders of the future? You can anticipate my answer…

 If I have to think of an education model, it would look quite like this:

 

*This model can vary according to the individual career selection, expectations, etc.

 
 

How would your ideal education model look like?

 

The Independent Project

While making some research I found myself with an article of a group of kids and teachers who are giving the extra step on this subject.  Let´s learn a little bit more about it:

¨The Independent Project is an alternative student driven school-within-a-school that was started at Monument Mountain Regional High School by a student.

 The idea for The Independent Project came about from that student’s own experience of high school, and his observations of the experiences of his peers. The two main things he felt were missing from many high school classrooms were engagement and mastery. He also felt that even students who were engaged were often learning material that was not very intellectually valuable. They were learning lots of information, but very little about how to obtain information on their own, or even create new information.

His intent was to design a school in which students would be fully engaged in and passionate about what they were learning, would have the experience of truly mastering something, or developing expertise in something, and would be learning how to learn.

He felt that the most important ingredient to a school like that would be that it was student-driven. He also felt that it was important for the school to be focused on methods rather than specific topics, having students work like actual scientists, mathematicians, or writers.

Eight students were accepted into the pilot program of the school, which ran for one semester and is now complete. The school, dubbed The Independent Project, is now in the stage of redesign and replication¨.

This idea has been a pilot supported by students, teachers and directors.  A new generation is claiming for new education, and it is up to every one of us to support them!

 

More information:

¨The Element¨ by Sir Ken Robinson
¨Finnish Lessons¨ by Pasi Sahlberg
The Independent Project at www.theindependentproject.org

 Quote of the day:

¨If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original¨
                                                                                                                                      Sir Ken Robinson