After some 200 years (plus) of Educational process, the early twenty-first century calls for a new educational paradigm. The existing educational model is built on a flawed system. This system is flawed due to one main attribute; the fact it is outdated. Can you imagine that the process by which children are being taught today is much the same as when the education process was created in the industrial revolution? The three 'R's we call it in the English system (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic). Which in itself is a joke. Not getting good marks in the spelling 'pop' quiz with that one I would say. The two hundred year old system was born out of a need to educate the masses in the (low end) process of industry. Mainly operating machinery, menial cleric work, etc. Give them enough knowledge to be able to think they are independent and smart, and you have a work force. A work force that will do labour that is not appealing, is not fulfilling, is not purposeful. Except to one goal; making someone else richer.
With the industrial revolution came one other big step for mankind; commerce. The values of which are now seen in the system, through capitalism. Money speaks, and morals do not. The simply fact that that paradigm itself has made it that the educational paradigm has become a farce, is a legacy of the influence of this new religion. All become dependant and hungry on the power of money that, in the case of education, the values of this system are put in jeopardy. Like many processes in modern mechanised systems, the educational system went from a craft-based structure (father-to-son) approach, to a more economically viable system, of pushing them through the mill (to use an euphemism). Many ways to describe this process have been defined by more apt scholars on the subject, but the basic value is that of 'parrot' teaching.
The most cost effective way to get a large mass of people semi-educated is to make a system of study, with a commonality of subjects, and to spout it out to the young minds and get the poor little darlings to repeat it, until they believe they have learnt something. When in fact all they have learnt is how to repeat something! It was reported that pre-school children under the age of five, where more capable of geographic based learning and study than early school children. One argument with that is that the children were not being taught the right thing. this was due to the fact that the system was out-dated and biased. The other argument was that many pre-school kids have a different approach to study. The socio-reflective approach to their upbringing means they have a more one-on-one connection with a parent or minder. When in school the children are then quickly forced to partake in a process by which educational markers are met. This does not account for many factors. One of which, and most importantly, is the simple fact that children don't learn at the same rate, don't enjoy the same subjects, have different interests. This is simply forgotten, why? Because it is not economically viable to give such individual attention to a large mass of kids.
An example of a small girl who was distracted in class, was aired by the protagonist of the modern education system, Sir Ken Robinson, and gave light to a big issue indeed. The girl wasn't doing very well at school, was taken to her head's office. There, there was a discussion with her mother about the issues at hand. It was advised that she will be observed and reported back on this issue. A later meeting, the girl was asked to stay in the head's office while the mother was taken outside for a private conversation. Before leaving the office the head switched on her radio, to occupy the girl. The mother was not given any talk on her daughter's progress, outside the office. Instead she was asked to watch through the window. The daughter was engaged by the music. Seemed to be alert and interested. The head said that her daughter was not bad at school, she just wasn't stimulated by the subjects. So she was placed in an arts school. The same girl went on to become a leading choreographer and set the choreography for the broadway show 'Cats'.
What this one example explains very clearly is that young minds are not all the same. Their purposes are not all the same. But unfortunately, they are all pushed through the same system. All told that they must learn to write, read and do science based subjects. Why? Because industry needs robots like this. The one stigma that the creative world often gets is that they are 'irresponsible drop-outs'. That they don't fit into society. Well, one of the key things that has been evident in the archaic education paradigm is that arts have never been a part of the process Why? Very obvious! The arts and ability to be artistic is about the freedom of thinking. The ability to use one's mind for it's real purpose; to explore. This is against the model for a commercial world. And as an attack on this ability to fre-think what does the capitalist society do? It values art, makes it commercial and regulates it.
This is one of the biggest and saddest approaches to a system out of control. When you can't control the masses, control what they enjoy. The music industry for example is big business now. A form of free-expression has been degraded to sales, chart positions, popularity. And to an extent that even the creativity of such forms are moulded and manufactured to fit into the money-making model. If you do something a little different the you will not succeed. You don't have the capitalist 'X' factor. And even more damning is the notation of worth on a painting. Record values on masterpieces. This is a condemnation of the reason they exist in the first place. It was about free-form again. Even though some art was delivered at a cost (artist have to survive in the capitalist machine as well), their art is about the one thing politics cannot control; their spirit.
So, can there be a new educational paradigm? Not when there are performance tables to be adhered to. Not when people pay for education. Not as long as the ancient process of the three 'R' populates school halls. Maybe it is a little amusing to hear this, but one of the greatest geniuses of our time, who was removed from the modern education process (due to lack of stimulus) quoted on education as such:
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
~ Albert Einstein
The capitalist system and the industrial (technological) revolution that created it's pillars are dead. A new approach has to be made. A new system to allow creative minds to ability to find creative solutions to the problems that all mankind face, needs to be discovered. It is evident after 200 years of misnomer on the education system, that nobody has been educated in the correct manner to our current predicament. Now, you see rare examples of genius popping out and delivery sheer brilliance in problem solving. What has to happen, is the money-makers themselves have to be educated in knowing that this genius is for the good of man, not the benefit of their pockets. The world has changed. The education system has not. Without finding a way to make the new young minds look at the ever growing issues of this planet and see them with a new perspective and fresh mind, then the system is doomed.
It is a little ironic that the word educate comes from the latin origin; "to lead out", and more of a joke that the modern education system is only leading these young minds by dangling a rotten carrot in front of them.
First posted on my blog in July 2011
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