An educational hybrid - developing for the future

Read my articles concerning education and you will quickly realise two things. I am sceptical of the approach and critical of where it is headed.

I am sceptical because educational systems have not improved considerably in the last 40 years. That seems like a pretty outrageous claim but it seems quite true when you start to look into how much new knowledge is available in psychology and pedagogical understanding, technological support aids and a host of other factors. It still takes twelve odd years with little improvement.

I am critical of where they are headed because it is in the same direction they have always travelled. They aim to create employees in a world where an estimated 70 percent of current jobs will disappear in the next two decades. So, what work will be available for these new graduates?

It is easy to say that new work will open up and that is true. The problem is that the new work must be work that cannot be done by an artificial system or robot but the majority of educational systems teach what is already known, what is programmable.

Schools make themselves an authority and the holders of knowledge. And this is true. What they seem to miss is that their knowledge (as all knowledge) is incomplete and severely limited when it comes to approaching the future.

The information they hold is always based on the past. After all, the answers are already in the back of the book. The certificates they grant are fast becoming useless in a world where much deeper information is available freely.

I actually see Steemit and the blockchain filling educational holes, decentralising certification needs and education and wresting it out of the control of the few. For when it is in the hands of the powerful few, it will be manipulated for their gain and the students within become products and labour resources to satisfy demand. Not children and individuals who could build a significantly better future by discovering for themselves who they want to be.

I had a discussion about this with a student two days ago. She said I am naive, the education system is doing an excellent job in Finland (one of the highest rated in the world).

Yes, it is doing an excellent job in its limited capacity.

She argues that the children are much more aware of the world, have a greater understanding of technology and are much more likely to follow their dreams than her generation.

True. They know all about world geography and the right way to do things, the Finnish way of course. Do they understand different is possible, do they know how to investigate it? They consume technology with an unquenchable thirst. But create it themselves? And their dreams, what good is a dream if one is unwilling to drive hard to gain the necessary skills for the long durations dreams take to fulfil? That is not a goal, it is a fantasy, an illusion and will only end in misery.

They know a lot, but understand little. If they understood, they would take better care of their bodies, better care of their privacy and better care of their future.

A future where the class gap is not going to be defined by money alone, it is going to be defined by the minority who can think and create and the majority who are forced to follow.

The jobs that will remain after the AI has taken its share, will not be for followers, not for the unskilled, not for those that require the pages in the back of the book to know if they are correct. The employable space that remains will be for the thinkers and creators, the artists of their craft, whatever their craft may be. The easy approach will no longer satisfy, making do at an average in skills that all hold, not good enough.

So what do we do as the parents, the educators, the role models of the future?

I would like to home school my daughter but I think I will not have the chance. I do not have the skills necessary to teach all of the basic classes necessary for foundation and even if I did, what is the point if what she learns at home is the same curriculum as at school. So, she will go and I will support her how I can.

So, I will take a hybrid approach. Home school her in the arts and creative pursuits, the physical skills that have fallen by the wayside. I will talk with her about all areas deeply, run and jump with her in the fields and the forests. She will be able to approach me with her fears and we can investigate them one by one, separate them by the psychological and the physical, and understand the difference. We will spend time researching bugs and why the aurora shine so beautifully in the autumn skies. Build a fire and cook many different foods.

We will take what she learns at school and make it practical, useful to her life at each stage she lives.I will ask her questions that make her think and raise more as she finds possible solutions. I will encourage her to experiment and help her develop the scientific methodology to question all things, all of life and most importantly, who she is. We will look at 1000 different approaches, explore whatever takes her interest. I will not have answers, as they will come as we explore our world. It will be world filled with curiosity of the darkness, wonder at what is found and the responsibility of what to do next.

We will play together and build process, knowledge will be a by-product, wisdom the result.

What she does with it, will be up to her.

"No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education." - Plato

Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]