Learning For Life
Wisdom Letter #30 | The One About Education
Do you consider yourself Educated?
Or Literate?
Is there even a difference?
And how do you even conclude that?
Is it about the last exam you passed? in school or college?
Is it about the credentials that school or college gave you to play and win petty status games?
Do you think your education has prepared you for life?
How would you design an education that prepares the next generation for life?
Our species has one of the longest childhoods compared to other creatures.
A long childhood means a lot of time protected from the dangers of the ‘real’ world. This protected time provides opportunities to prepare the would-be adults for the life ahead.
The core purpose of education is to prepare us for a life full of unforeseen challenges and random events that can go both in favor or against us.
That would imply preparedness in all aspects — financial, social, emotional and any other domain that is relevant for that time.
The relevance to the time is the key aspect that would govern what needs to be taught and how.
Should my education help me deal with a crisis like the one we are facing today with COVID19 pandemic? Is that an unfair expectation? What did my education prepare me for? (When did you really start social distancing? or are you like this bright IAS from Kerala who fled quarantine orders to travel across the country. Please, don’t be like him. Sit at home and wash your hands.)
Sadly, most of our education still tries to prepare us to be factory workers required in the early years of the industrial revolution.
Where else in your life, does the ringing of a bell signify the end of a task, apart from factories?(or schools!)
Where else is obedience valued more than creativity — again factories where assembly lines take priority over even bathroom breaks.
Is it any wonder that our formal education system resembles an assembly line churning out one finished product after another? All alike, in terms of qualities and defects.
Today we live in the internet age, the industrial revolution is far behind us, but sadly, the way we educate our children is still stuck in those ancient times.
A postmodern world will generate postmodern jobs which will require postmodern education. How do we prepare for that?
Also, should jobs even be the only purpose of education?
What about social and emotional preparedness? What about financial preparedness even? Nobody teaches you to manage the money that you earn?
More so, nobody ever teaches you to keep your job or succeed at your job, which apparently was “the” purpose of that education.
This week on The Wisdom Project we re-examine our education system. What is, or rather should be the purpose of education? Do we have systems in place to achieve that or are we lost somewhere? And is there any escape? Is it too late to undo the damage? If not, what can we do now?
You are the average of the 5 types of content you consume most online.
Subscribe to The Wisdom Project to receive a curation of the best that the internet has to offer.
We send 1 Email every Sunday.
