In this current situation, there are many graduates who have no work or are doing something that they don’t like. If this scenario does not apply to you, I know very well that you know and you are aware of people, friends that are experiencing it.
Would you help to answer the following questions?
- Why is the system not working?
- Who can we hold responsible for this failing?
- How long has this system been going on without somebody realising that it is not working?
- How did recession show that this system is not feasible at all?
The true essence of education was that of gaining skills required for an individual to be better acquainted to face challenges thrown at in this world. There was no time when education was to get grades and then get a good paying job.
When and how did institutions start to educate people to compete for a better paying job? Who started that system? When did we forget to inform our students that they should always follow the values they have instead of following a good paying job?
Where are we heading to if all students decide to go to colleges and universities in order to get a good paying job in the end? What will be the optimum results for training and education these students with the end result being of obtaining a good paying job? Let’s not get fooled at all by forgetting that at the moment in the marketplace there are fewer jobs created each year and life standard improves gradually that people who are already in employment will stay longer.
If no jobs are created, what will we do with graduating students? If a graduate is going to wait for two or three years before landing the dream job, what will happen with the pile of graduate unemployed? How long will this cycle go on?
Caring parents always want their offspring to be better off or have opportunities that they did not have or could not afford. One of those opportunities is having a better education. I know and I am one of individuals who have gone to college and university because it was what my parents wanted me to do.
I hold high value for education and I am grateful for doing that; nevertheless I strongly believe that there was another way that could have been another way used to tell their children about attending or following education.
What is education really?
Is education, knowledge in basic skills, academics, technical, discipline, citizenship or is it something else? Our society says only academic basics are important and that is based on collecting knowledge without understanding its value.
These institutions mainly tend to forget the concept of processing the knowledge, using inspiration, visionary ambitions, creativity, risk, ability to bounce back from failure, motivation? Most education institutions don’t consider these skills. These skills are associated with understanding the value of knowledge. There is huge disconnected gap and this is a problem for high school students in particular.
Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and many other super achievers never finished grade school. They succeeded because they knew how to research, collect information for a selected project and process knowledge.
This is something you can not find in classroom because the classroom environment does not work that way. It focuses on the collection of knowledge without a clear purpose, other than high-class grades. If the purpose does not motivate, other than to please the teachers, then there is nothing to process outside memorising answers for test.
The typical student is academic challenged while being motivation starved. Lack of information is lack of knowledge processing skills. The typical college graduate will have a professional skill that supplies life’s basic needs, that’s all.
Having mentioned the above few paragraphs, how can one therefore define education? All the elements consist of education that have been discussed, all those elements relate to education and should be considered. This would be ideal and sounds good, but “all” is not possible where performance must be measured.
Only what can be measured will be selected and the measuring tool is written test. Anyone who does not have the ability to put clear thoughts on paper is labelled a failure. All natural skills, including knowledge processing, does not count. The fact is, what is exercised grows stronger, what is ignored stay dormant. The classroom exercises the collection of academic leaving all other natural skills in the closet.
Is this the reason why those people who were considered mediocre in class become successful entrepreneurs and wealthier than those who were considered grade A students?
Can this be the reason why certain firms don’t progress because they have put faith into someone who lacks main skills required and only have an academic skill of doing research?
Who is to revert this system then? How can students benefit from the system?
Test does not measure intelligence or ability, it does not measure how the mind process information, how motivating experiences develop persistence, or how the mind sorts out instinct, opinions, evaluations, possibilities, alternatives. Knowledge by itself has no value; it is like a dictionary filled with words. Words by themselves have no value, it is the process of stringing them together that gives them value.
How they (words) are strung together determines. Now our education system is becoming a system that memorises the dictionary. When students have memorised selected knowledge, then they will be given a one-day test, based on dictionary knowledge, which will influence employment opportunity for the rest of their life.
Natural skills are not considered. Is this how the Western became the world’s economic leaders? NO! Knowledge only has value when used with a process and process in an artificial environment is not predictable or measurable.
Achievers in life use inspiration to overcome barriers. Teaching to the test does not inspire or motivate anyone, memorising does not inspire a love to learn, in fact, it does just the opposite, it turns off the desire to learn. Education’s goal should be developed a love to learn that stays with students throughout a lifetime. Education should be a lifetime experience, not limited to the youth areas.
A good example is how these successful entrepreneurs are always eager to learn, they read a lot, and they continue to learn. Once Mr Warren Buffet said that he reads more than 2000 financial reports every year, this shows the hunger to learn and know more.
Educators are switching to test because there is a crisis in education of their own making and society wants measurable results. This pressure is passed on to political leaders who base political decisions on what is measurable, which is academic test and test are based on acceptance of the status quo.
Every student must now accept the status quo and be an academic intellectual or be labelled a failure. Natural talent and knowledge processing skills does not count. Students receiving the failure label are growing in numbers and percent, all because the system measures selected knowledge on a one day standardised paper test
- Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein in 1895 clashed with authorities at the school he was learning from called “Luitpold Gymnasium”, he was not happy with the school’s regimen and teaching method. He later wrote that the spirit of learning and creative thought were lost in strict “rote learning”.
ROTE LEARNING is a learning technique which avoids understanding of a subject and instead focuses on “MEMOLISATION.” The major practice involved in rote learning is “learning by repetition.” The idea is that one will be able to quickly “recall” the meaning of the material the more one repeat it.
In United State, the rote learning also known as cramming or mugging because one who engages in rote learning may give the wrong impression of having understood what they have written or said. It is strongly discouraged by many new curriculum standards. NCTM (New Curriculum Standards) and (National Science Education Standards) call for more emphasis on active learning, critical thinking and communication over recall of facts.
In the United Nations Arab human development report for 2004 the Arab researchers claim that role learning is a major contributing factor to the lack of progress in science and research and development in the Arab countries.
- Richard Branson
Richard Branson left school at the age of 16. He had mild dyslexia and has poor academic as a student, but discovered his ability to connect with others. His poor academic records were no near his excellence in swimming. When he left school his head-teacher said that he will end up in jail or become a successful entrepreneur.
Consider the parent who is having a problem with a word processor on their own they can’t solve the problem. They have been collecting knowledge for years, but their knowledge processor is in hibernation. With any new gadget someone has to teach them, they can’t figure out for themselves.
Their thirteen-year-old boy comes to the rescue. He has limited knowledge, but he knows how to processes available information. He explores the word processor problem until he finds a solution. He is not unusually smart, this is a teenager’s natural approach to finding solutions.
All young children have a natural talent for creative process of information. It’s during the teen years that natural creative processing is replaced with the status quo. The status quo memorise knowledge and forgets how to process it. In the classroom, memorising is what counts. Standardised test reinforces the status quo. It kills creative processing ability. Status quo attitudes will follow them into adult life where they will have to ask their children for help.
In nowadays, the education has a new tool on the market, behaviours control drugs. Any student who refuses to accept the status quo is labelled a troublemaker and will be drugged. The student now behaves in the classroom with glassy eyes and school officials receive high performance ratings. The student may get passing grades and land a job with a comfortable wage, but that will be all. Teenage dreams of great ambitions are gone.
It is a fact that self-made millionaire are not “A” students in the classroom. The way they process knowledge is in conflict with classroom priorities. The self-made millionaire has a vision, then he researches specific knowledge, applies intuitive knowledge and process as elements, searching for a workable solution. Finding alternative ways to do common tasks makes millionaires. The secret is vision, research and processing, not pre-stored knowledge.
The typical employer wants employees with dictionary knowledge, not visionaries. They want employees who follow orders, are willing to do repetitive tasks, be happy with a limited role, and accept the status quo.
Repetitive task is efficiency and this is where profits are made. Also accepting the status quo prevents the exposure of blunders by leaders. Too many blunders and profits disappear. In a status quo environment visionaries become bored quickly and soon receive the troublemaker label by offering alternatives or exposing blunders, sometimes leading to dismissal, yet their ideas increase efficiency and create new sources of profits for the company.
In the long haul, visionaries are the one’s who make above average wages no matter what their formal education level. The education system now has the tools to kill off this type of person, behaviour control drugs! As these students move into the workforce, status quo and blunders will kill off the typical business.
What can be considered a quality education?
A quality education is a custom design that addresses the unique abilities of each student and has a positive emotional experience. Customer education evaluates natural talent and how the student learns. This is why home schooled students out perform classroom students. Parents learn what works and does not work, then focus on what works. With this method, students develop a love to learn and learning becomes a lifelong process.
What type of education environment, do you think, will produce consistent winners?
