What is Education for?

As kids, we walk into school with an open mind.

We are innocent and naïve.

It's a time where everything is new. And where everything is possible.

We are the human equivalent of a living-breathing-back-pack wearing sponge.

We are barely knee high and yet we have reached a pivotal time in our lives.

We are going to meet our first teacher.

Luckily most teachers are brilliant.

The brilliant ones are that way Œcos they love what they do.

And as kids even if we don't always listen to the words they say, we can feel the passion with which they say them.

And passion, like negativity, is contagious.

But all teachers, no matter how passionate, have to follow a curriculum born of the last century.

And then teach that to kids from this century.

At best, it's a struggle for the teacher.

At worst, kids can't relate to it. And switch off.

Our educational system still thinks we have to sit exams to show how smart we are. And yet a test of memory doesn't always show our ability to think.

An exam doesn't tell teachers how creative you are, or how determined you are, or how prone to stress you are.

Can we learn as much about Maths by making things as counting things? Probably. Can sport teach us more about ourselves than almost anything? Definitely.

But the big question is does our educational system want to learn about the kids in front of them? Does it want to ask them what they are interested in?

The reason to ask them is simple: we learn better when we are interested.

Now the next big question is can a school learn? Can it adapt? Can it make itself more relevant? Can it change? Can it give education that connects to the kids in front of them? Or will it carry on giving them what it has prepared from the last century, regardless of how relevant it is to today. So that brings to the last big question: Love. We are taught the importance of finding a career but not the importance of finding our love. We have to change education to find out what they are interested in. Find their interest and you will unlock the floodgates of their learning.

So interest is key. If you are interested in something, you will be willing to toil away at it. Put the hours in without feeling like it is a chore. If you are interested in it, it will become your passion. And in the end, it will become your love.

And as you walk out of school and into a job you love, then work will feel more like play, the clock will never go slow, and because you love what you do, the chance are you are going to pretty good at it. And it will be a bunch of fun too.

So I guess getting schools to come into this century is pretty important.

taken from Do Blog (link)