When I think about education, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘food for thought’. Unfortunately I have the feeling that today we are constantly being force fed. There are many types of education, but in my opinion it comes down to two, what you teach yourself and what you get taught by others.
Autodidacticism should have always been the goal of the educational system, because by formatting and standardizing the way and the things people learn, creativity is driven way down. This results in the loss of free thinkers and ‘outside the box’ ideas. Maybe in the past the system which is being used today was necessary for the survival and evolution of the human race, but that was a different age. Today’s technology and way of life has made it much easier for people to become self-educated, and instead of taking advantage of this innovation to push humanity in a new educational revolution, we are sticking to old dogmatic systems which seem problematic for today’s existence.
For example, we push children to compete with each other for grades. This might raise the standard in the short term, but how helpful is it really in the long term? This divides them into strong and weak students. Wouldn’t it be better to look at them as a whole, let them help one another by promoting teamwork and community spirit?
Also, another part we rarely think about is the way the classes are put together. Why is age so important? Why can’t there be classes with different age groups according to the student’s potential for example?
There are so many wonders in the world that we could share with our youth to help them open their minds to the possibilities in front of them, but instead we tell them ‘this is bad’ ‘this is wrong’ ‘you can’t do this’. We constantly limit them and enforce a certain way of thinking, our way of thinking, which was passed down to us by past generations.
We take children who are potential geniuses and medicate them because for example they are diagnosed with ADHD. Future athletes, artists or great thinkers might never have the chance to share their talents with the world because they are constantly drugged. It’s a shame.
Imagine children and generally people who can think for themselves, make better informed decisions and even help others do the same. A new and improved education will bring a new and improved world…
