A much needed Paradigm Shift in Education today!

 

As a child I have always wondered if I really belonged in the school! (Is the feeling mutual my friend?)

I was mostly scared in the classes because I want very good at studies. I have got beatings from my teachers, especially from the Math and English teachers. I believed I was no good for studies and nothing worthwhile that I will be. 

Well, it turns out there many who thought that way and figured out what they were really good at and contributed. 

It looks like, every country on earth at the moment is reforming public education. There are two reasons for this. The first of them is economic. People are trying to work out how do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century? How do we do that given that we can't anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week, as the recent turmoil is demonstrated. How do we do that? The second is cultural. Every country on earth is trying to figure out how do we educate our children so they have a sense of cultural identity so that we can pass on the cultural genes of our communities while being part of the process of globalisation? How do we square that circle?

There's a third reason which is created by the Covid-19 pandemic recently and that is related to the emotional aspect of a person. Children are frustrated, parents have no clue and the schools are still puzzled as to what should be the best way out for education to continue. In a bargain like this, the tension has built up. People have less options for entertainment and exposure. As a result, the emotional balloon of people is at a breakpoint and it needs an immediate and assured release of tension. But the irony of our education system is that it doesn't really educate people to give an 'empathic listening ear' to those in need. Our parents, educators are at a loss in situations like these. 

We also try to educate every child in a standard way. The structure as we follow at schools, the curricula etc is of a "production mentality". Not everyone fits in the same mould and if we try, as we do, the children loose the interest in education. Then we try to use different strategies to get them focused to "our way" of education. 

The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. And aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you're present in the current moment, when you're resonating with the excitement of this thing that you're experiencing, when you're fully alive. An anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what's happening. We're getting our children through education by anaesthetising them. And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn't be putting them asleep we should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves. 

Schools are still pretty much organised on factory lines; ringing bells, separate facilities, specialised into separate subjects. We still educate children by batches; we put them through the system by age group - why do we do that? Why is there this assumption that the most important thing kids have in common is how old they are. It's like the most important thing about them is their date of manufacture. Well I know kids who are much better than other kids at the same age in different disciplines, or at different times of the day, or better in smaller groups than in large groups, or sometimes they want to be on their own. If you're interested in the model of learning you don't start from this production line mentality.  

Well, we need to prepare our children to solve bigger problems (like climate change, population, Individual responsibility and the social sickness of exclusion etc.) than just producing things. We need better humans of us than just Engineers, Managers, Doctors etc. 

Educators have the most critical role to play, the role of "making a Difference". 

~Inspired by a talk at RSA, by Sir Ken Robinson