Bespoke learning, creating your own courses, finding new subjects, exploring new ideas, getting Scotty to “beam you up “ or down, tapping into your subconscious to travel “Back to the future” or wiring into the next big thing!
However you slice it, the process of learning is on the brink of radical changes. So, then what should the school system focus on, given that college education and the school system have already moved online?
The answer to questions like these are even more elusive in these uncertain times where technological innovations and ever improving data speeds have created a phenomenon of instant information that seems to have added a degree of complexity to the learning process and to overall intellectual development.
While having access to instant information certainly has several benefits, perhaps its greatest drawback for a developing mind and intellect and indeed even for a “developed” one is the possibility of information overload.
The process of learning and healthy intellectual development involves the inculcation of skills such as the ability to concentrate, to comprehend, to analyze by discerning the useful from the unnecessary, to ponder, to wonder and to imagine, all of which are thwarted by constant exposure to information.
With students spending more time on electronic interfaces, school systems will need to re-calibrate their approach to learning by finding unique ways to ensure a three-dimensional development of head, heart and spirit for students so that they can successfully wield information for their benefit.
Adapting to Changing Circumstances
The corona virus pandemic has also added an extra impetus to colleges and schools to move to a virtual platform. Students have had to suddenly wake up to days of no rushing for the school bus and stressing about being on time.
Overnight the onus to adjust and perform has shifted to the students and they have had to become responsible to adapt to this new change. With no bell ringing at the end of a class, the transitioning from one area of study to the other has perhaps been a tough lesson in self-discipline, but this is certainly the nature of things to come.
With social interaction now down to zero, the use of social media is going to increase ten-fold. The system then needs to look at social skills, communication skills, emotional health, and a coping mechanism that encourages compassion and empathy.
Even before the pandemic, there was an urgent need to teach life skills and to inculcate healthy habits that foster individual growth :–
- The skill of dealing with disappointment and failure
- The skill and importance of taking response-ability for one's actions versus merely reacting
- The value of being respectful
- The significance behind cultivating a mind of one's own
- The value of being non-judgemental and appreciative of diversity in all forms
- The value and importance of values such as honesty and integrity to healthy living
- The ability to cope with grief and loss
- The wherewithal to recognize that money is what money does; it does not define you
- The value of playing, especially outdoors and its impact on the development of a strong mind , immune system and heart
A New Era of Education
Educators have been talking about the urgency to change the system. Make it relevant to the changing times. We know that the world is changing more rapidly now than it did in the last 50 years.
Adapting is the new mantra. While change is happening in all spheres of life the education system continues to be the same, ‘grade driven’. It still doesn’t recognize the significance of cultivating creativity, ingenuity, and passion – so by the time school is done an indoctrinated student is sent out into the world, a cog in a wheel. Mediocrity is rewarded.
Encouraging lateral thinking, putting things in perspective and connecting the dots between the sciences and the arts and emphasizing the importance of language and the power of the word, the mood, and tone of communication should be the way forward, even if it means that it is given 2 hours a week on the school calendar!
Mom, Dad – ” The times they are a changin’ ”
Parents need to come on board. Invariably parents tend to get competitive. We are all familiar with the ‘Dragon Mom’, pushing the child to the edge. One has to be careful about pushing them over.
Often children are made to push themselves in the area they have no interest in. The need to live vicariously through the achievements of the children leads to burnout and eventually rebellion.
Somewhere along the line the child forgets what he was ever excited about and tends to bully parents into getting that iPhone, that pair of sneakers, or that other something that temporarily holds their attention and gives them a false sense of satisfaction. Education does not happen, some rote learning does that more often than not leads to mediocrity and apathy despite the A+.
Most of us know this, and yet making room for the huge shift in the system that’s necessary has been difficult, if not impossible because of fear of the unknown, says educator Madeline Levine, author of Teach Your Children Well.
"People don’t like change, especially in times of great uncertainty," she said. "People naturally go conservative and buckle down and don't want to try something new. There are schools that are trying to do things differently, and although on the one hand they’re heralded as having a terrific vision, they’re still seen as experimental."
During this time of economic uncertainty, especially, Levine said parents want to make sure their kids won't fall into the ranks of the unemployed and disenfranchised young people who return home because they're unable to find jobs. "There's so much anxiety around the economy, they're thinking, What can I do to make sure that my kid isn’t one of the unemployed"? she said.
Yet therein lies the paradox. It's exactly during these uncertain times when people must be willing to try new things, to be more open, curious and experimental, she said. In education, although there are great new models of learning and schooling, they are the exceptions, and the progressive movement has not gained much momentum”
Maybe these times of uncertainty and isolation offer a great opportunity for both students and educators to find solutions that weren’t accessible during “normal” times simply because no one cared enough to look.
Students will begin to take responsibility for their learning as they already have begun to and educators will perhaps begin to re-think, remodel and re-engineer “broken” systems of education that prioritize results over the process. Eventually, I think, as the world heals and things slowly come back to life, our educational paradigms will transform more than they have in the past decades to be more inclusive because now the world demands it.