The Education Revolution

While writing my last blog about how Menand affected my life, and furthermore, how the current education system fits into Menand's theories, I came across some TED talks.  I had originally intended to include them in that blog but they got me thinking, and I realized all the things I wanted to talk about would just make it too long, so I decided to write a separate one.

If you didn't read my last blog, or are just too lazy to do it right now, I'll give you a quick summary.  College to some extent fills the second theory we and do learn, but not as much as we should be.  Unfortunately we follow the first theory, where all we focus on are our GPAs.  And that is pretty much the gist of it.  But something that I perhaps didn't explain or even mention is that the major difference that splits the  first theory from the second is creativity.  Now it's important to define what I mean by creativity here.  Creativity, as defined by Sir Ken Robinson, is coming up with ideas that have value.  The majority of the time, individuals just focusing on their GPA are taking classes that don't necessarily interest them.  Not only that, but  GPAs are focused on a specific set of skills that children are taught from the moment they enter school.  But the problem is, these methods only one kind of intelligence, when intelligence is truly as diverse as fingerprints.  Sir Ken Robinson, believes this to be the case today, actually he gives quite an intriguing TED talk about the subject, that I believe you should watch.

The point Sir Robinson makes is that creativity isn't lost as we grow up, but that it is taught out of us.  However, more importantly, that certain subjects are given priority over other and certain people believe they aren't smart or talented simply because they don't fit the norm.  Now the reason this system arose was due to industrialization, where people were taught what they needed to get a job.  But it's due time it changed.  Sir Robinson argues that intelligence is unique, and we need to begin treating it so, and he is right.

Remember the story he tells about Gillian Lynne?  Well I believe she was lucky, as Sir Robinson put it, most people "are put on medication and told to calm down."  People give up their passions or put them on a side burner, just because the likelihood is that they won't be able to find a viable job.  In fact I was talking to someone at work just yesterday and they were telling me that they really loved psychology.  However, they decided to do linguistics, not because they enjoyed it more, but because they felt it was more employable.  Now I'm not really sure if this is the case here, but the point is that they felt like their passion was not viable so decided to not pursue it.  Now some people decide to follow their passions, and in some cases it works works out, but it others it doesn't.  But the problem is education doesn't need to evolve, it needs to be transformed.  We are facing education inflation, where degrees mean less and less, and unless we change the way we think, the future is bleak.

Now this is the topic of Sir Robinson's next TED talk...

The major point here is that education is linear.  We teach to one view of intelligence when it is so diverse.  To quote Sir Robinson, "we need to switch from a industrial model...to a more agricultural one."  What is wrong with customizing learning?  What if instead of requiring someone who maybe wants to be an artist or a writer to take calculus, what if they make more english or drawing?  Sure we need businessmen and lawyers and doctors, but why not more specialized programs for writers or painters?

But the problem here doesn't start in college, it starts early on.  Children are told to stay away from certain things because they are useless, and as we get older, somethings almost disappear all together.  We need to feed children's passions, not destroy them.  Sometimes you hear stories of doctors or businessmen and just open a restaurant or become a painter.  But these stories need to be told from the start, where people start with what they love.

Education needs to follow a new theory, a fourth one touched on by Sir Robinson, that college, and just education in general, should teach to passion.  Education must be customized, to create an environment where dreams can flourish, and not wither.  It is through passion that we learn, and through passion that we succeed.  Ask any successful person, it is not because they focus on succeeding, but because they love what they do.  When you are passionate about something, you want to learn, and when you want to learn, you do well.  It is through this model, that we can achieve Menand's second and first theories together.  But at the same time we need to revolutionize the model presented by the first theory.  People shouldn't be sorted or judged based on one single narrow view of intelligence.  We need to move from a fast food model to an agricultural one.

I'm sorry for the long post, but before I go I want to leave you with two poems, one by W.B. Yeats, which was read by Sir Robinson at the end of the second video, and one by Langston Hughes, and a quote:

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew." ~Abraham Lincoln