Learning and A Lieutenant General

When I am doing work that does not require much brain power, I like to watch, more like listen to Youtube videos. I came across a truly interesting video. I'll summarize the video if you're in a hurry so do scroll down.

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In 2002, the United States military conducted a war game, pitting the United States armed forces against a fictional Iranian military. The fictional army was led by Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper. Outnumbered and using inferior technology, Van Riper was able to sink an entire aircraft carrier battle group and win.

The rules were changed later and the odds shifted even further for him. Disgruntled, he stopped playing and walked out. Stating the following phrase...

Nothing was learnt from this. A culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future

I find that this speaks volumes with regards to how much of learning works these days.

Learning For Exams

I have coached and trained students for exams. In fact, I have done it for quite some time and personally, I find that this is problematic. It boxes learning into a box set by the exam. Thus, if the exam requires the student to apply knowledge or think creatively, that is a good thing. That is because the students will be trained to apply two very important skills that will bring them lifelong benefits.

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However, if exams are centered around rote memorization, which still exists in certain curriculum, training students for exams becomes a very painful exercise. A student of mine used to compare memorizing facts for a history exam to swimming upstream in a river with your mouth open. It saps the energy right out of you while at the same time drowning you.

The lesson that we have not learnt unfortunately is that, people are practical. Rarely do people learn for the fun of learning. Thus, why not change the way exams are administered? Most of what we do in life are done outside of the exam hall. The best way to test if a student qualifies for college education is to test the students in the field that they are interested and passionate about. If they are able to persist in the face of problems and innovate for the benefit of a particular industry, I'd say that is the most reliable test of all, better than any pen and paper test. Furthermore, this also puts the students in a situation where they have to constantly test themselves. This would give them a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in the real world, not just on a pen and paper test.

Decision Making

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One of the many reasons why General Paul Van Riper was able to beat the United States armed forces in the wargames was due to how he organized his troops. Instead of relying on slow analytical thinking and possible scenarios, Van Riper relied on fast communication and rapid cognition in making decisions.

When a new technology or a new form of thinking is introduced to the world, it takes at least five to ten years for it to be adapted into the education system. An example is this, have you seen any textbooks teaching about blockchain technology in school? Blockchain was all the hype last year but the information was obtained not from textbooks but Google. This is a result of a very long decision making process to keep an education system updated. It's not without its merits. The decision making process takes into account a lot of research and trials before implementing something new. This is good, but at the expense of keeping our students updated.

With the rapid advancement of technology, it is no surprise that textbooks are becoming door stoppers instead of sources of information. Most students prefer to search for information online these days. It is time that we adapt to the students' form of learning and move away from having books as the main source of information, but as a supplementary source of information. For example, a class could start with students presenting what they have found from researching online on a particular topic. As the student presents, the teacher can facilitate the exploration of deeper themes and topics, paving the way for further research and self learning.

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Such a form of learning challenges the students to constantly see beyond the surface and dig deeper to gain a better understanding of things. Often, the information found online is at a surface level, with teachers and some books, the students could be prompted to think harder on certain issues, training them to be more critical and creative in looking at certain things. While such forms of learning can be unthinkable as of now, the earlier we start, the faster it will benefit future generations.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the video and thought that it was a great indication of how learning should evolve. Hopefully, education systems would learn from its past mistakes, innovate and change quickly as to equip the next generation for a brighter future. I hope you have enjoyed this post, do you think the education system challenges the students enough in their learning? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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