We send our children to school to prepare them for the real world - which is changing very, very quickly...
- but our schools haven't changed much for hundreds of years.
It is now a widely popular opinion among thought leaders and of experts in the field that our current system was designed for the industrial age, mainly to churn out factory workers.
This industrial age mentality of mass production, and mass control, still runs deep in our schools today, in nearly every country.
1. INDUSTRIAL AGE VALUES
We are educating our children by batches, and governing their lives by ringing bells. All day long, students do nothing but follow instruction. At school, they are rewarded for doing exactly as they are told.
These industrial age values were really important for factory workers as their success depended on following instructions, and doing exactly what they were told...
The question is: In today's world, how far can you get simply by following instructions?
The modern world values people who can be creative, communicate their ideas, and collaborate with others, but our children are not getting the chance to develop such skills.
2. LACK OF AUTONOMY & CONTROL
At school, our children experience a complete lack of autonomy and control. Every minute of a child's life is tightly controlled by a regimented itinerary.
In today's world, if you are doing important work, then you are managing your own time.
You are making your own decisions regarding what to do, and when to do it... but life at school looks very different.
The system is sending a dangerous message to our children:
That they are not in charge of their own lives; they are only to follow whatever is laid down, instead of taking initiative, and making the most out of the resources they have. Experts believe autonomy is incredibly important for children, so it is no wonder, then, that children are bored and demotivated by school.
Can you imagine how you would feel if you were told exactly what to do for every moment of your life?
3. INAUTHENTIC LEARNING
Most of the learning that happens in school today is not authentic because it relies on memorization.
The system defines a generic set of knowledge that all children must know, and then every few months, we measure how much has been maintained by administering exams
We know that such learning is not authentic because most of it is gone the day after the exam.
Learning can be much deeper and much more authentic. It can be so much more than just memorization and retention...
- but that's the only thing we measure... and test scores are the only thing we value.
This has created an extremely unhealthy culture for students, parents, and teachers.
Children are going through endless hours of tuitions, staying up all night memorizing useless facts that they will soon forget.
4. NO ROOM FOR PASSIONS AND INTERESTS
We have an extremely standardized system where each child must learn the same thing, at the same time, in the same way, as everyone else. This doesn't respect the basic fact of being human. Each of us is unique and different in our own way. We all have different passions and interests, and the key to fulfillment in life is to find your passion.
But do the schools of today help our children find and develop their passion?
There seems to be no room in the current education system for the most important questions in a child's life:
What am I good at?
What do I want to do in life?
How do I fit in to this world?
The system doesn't seem to care.
There are so many greatly talented people who failed in the traditional school system, and went on to accomplish incredible things. We have no measure for how much talent and how much potential goes unrecognized in the current school system today.
5. DIFFERENCES IN HOW WE LEARN
Each of us is also different in how we learn, in how much time we take to learn something, and what tools and resources work best for us;
however, the system allows no room for such differences.
So if you are a bit slow at learning something, you are considered a failure...
- when, perhaps all you might need, is a little more time.
6. LECTURING
In the current system, children are lectured for more than 5 hours per day, but there are a few big problems with lecturing...
Sal Khan (Khan Academy) calls lecturing "a fundamentally dehumanizing experience... thirty kids with fingers on their lips not allowed to interact with each other".
In any given classroom, different students are at different levels of understanding, so no matter what the teacher does, there are bound to be students who are either bored because they are ahead, or confused because they are behind
Because of the internet, and digital media, our children have, at their fingertips, all of the information in the world. Technology has made it possible for anyone to learn anything, but for fear of losing control, the system is not leveraging these incredible resources.
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Our system of education, which evolved in the industrial age, has become outdated and ineffective.
If we want to prepare our children for the modern world...
If we want learning to be effective and engaging, then there is no doubt that we need to fundamentally change our system of education.
