Beyond the educational system. Flexibility against immobility.

The beginning of the teaching

          Passing the primary knowledge from one generation to another is not a radical new idea for humans and it could trace back even to the animal kingdom when the essential skills, like what food is not poisonous or where to find water to what animals to avoid, helped the creatures to survive. In the same matter knowledge passed from parents to children of humans, for instance parents taught they offsprings how to build a shelter or how to hunt or what month is most favorable to sow the plants seeds. This knowledge was limited to occupation and regional displacement and most of the times the peasants were sharp, clever and skilled enough in their physical field but couldn't even read or write. Intellectual property was at different scale and status and could be reached only among wealthy and noble families where very few had access to royal court.
The main learning in the royal court differed widely from what the peasant's children learned from their parents such things like reading, writing, rhetoric, table manners, war familiarization, playing music instruments, diplomacy, arithmetic, family history were among others the basic subjects at that time. In those times when clerics had enormous powerful ability to record many kind of scripts which not so many could interpret, they had gained wealth and influence by controlling, manipulating and exploiting the reading, writing and counting arrangement.  Thus shift of competence and authority for the first time occurred when intellectual information has started to overthrow the more practical and physical expertise of waving with swords. Later the churches start to provide also so precious learnings to less wealthy persons like future priest, monks, nuns or other church servants but not for making people smarter but to aggressively promote the church values and ideology. The main teaches were reading, writing both in local and latin language, ceremonial ethichet, hierarchy order, astronomy, religious codex or other related to religion rules.
          The first dated university was established in Italy and evolved from cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages. University of Bologna as first higher institution of education was founded in year 1088[1] and constituted only from men from wealthy families, women at that time wasn't allowed to study for their intellectual inferiority or as distraction from their natural role of wife or giving birth to children. Of course today it sound as absolute baseless nonsense affirmation and also oriented discrimination for controlling women to not occupy high positions in society.
           As public schools become taking direction for compulsory education in middle of 18th century in Denmark and Prussia it get full momentum only by middle of 19th century and up to modern days when Uganda and Lesotho introduced compulsory education in 2008 and respectively in 2010[2]. As consequence of striving to unify and make education system cognate, new standardization models were to take place to deliver identical structure of learning process and one of the prominent attempts was introduction of compulsory subjects, either by a working group of individuals which in USA they have been known as Committee of Ten[3] or by correlated agencies and ministries in other countries.

Intermediate stick template

          Many compulsory subjects in schools has changed thru years from rhetoric and land tenure to informatics or sexual education. The subjects pupils learn in schools are various from place to place for instance in places like middle east or muslim cultures persistence of religious subjects still root in day by day lessons in other places like China or other traditional places, the political views and cultural norms is induced and indoctrinated with political party agenda into the pupil's future mentality, other places revive the status of death languages like latin, old english or old greek as primary source of enlightenment to strengthen ethnic and cultural bounds?
          Even if children learn the school program that is formulated from the adult strategic viewpoint of values and knowledge it does not help to justify whether children will have use of these subjects in the real life or not. It's like sending one way powerful directed signal from the educational system, which is arrogantly ignorant that never bounce back with feedback from pupils. Since my time in school, I and my classmates was challenged by many unwillingness subjects that never gave good results and some of pupils could get so far to traunt the lessons, in response from the school staff or parents the same threaten and aggressive tone was applicated, that you are lazy, stupid, uneducated or careless youth with no steady future. Well yeah I heard that many times but today I can challenge all of the similar claims to be inappropriate and unprofessional to state, that even core subjects as math and writing today is more or less worthless to study in school. Why? Looking around us the answer is coming self explanatory.
Year 2019, digital era, flying cars, 3D printing organs, quantum computers and nanotechnology, I don't remember when I hold the last time a pen in my hand and with the hitech mobile supercomputer in my pocket which became an extension and an inseparable part not of the life but of the body it self, as consequence I barely need to know by heart how much is 7x8. Let's make it crystal clear, many subjects that pupil learn in school are not useful in the real adult world: not many have use of geometry and Pythagoras theorem in adult life if you are not engineer or mathematician or any other profession related to it, even I learned engineering, worked for more than 15 years in construction and I could not attest that I used geometry many times, furthermore not many remember or need in real life the structure of the cell or to know the process of photosynthesis function if you are not biologist or other occupation related to it,  not many have use of classic literature in real life if you are not writer or literature teacher, not many have use in real life of the Battle of Cartagena if you are not archaeologist or historian, not many have to be able to write by hand because almost anything today people do it in computer, phone or tablet, even typing and sending text messages is out shifted by more simple and intuitive talking interface as Google, Siri or Amazon personal virtual assistant Alexa[4].
          Some or frankly to say many subjects in school cause stress, discomfort and annoyance or apathy if children don't like it or can't relate the abstract material to real world and not the less to mention that it is waste of time and resources to attend practices which is not applicable in people's future pursuit, so why not delicately scrap all together the collective compulsory subjects teaching in favor for coveted individual themes?
          Many issues that humanity face today like global warming, armed conflicts, inequality, fake news or discrimination is mainly caused by lack of basic facts and knowledge and incapability to grasp and sense the bigger picture and hidden motives which not many can perceive but it could be a completely different narrative outcome for commonwealth if children and pupils had more insight on this major topics. For instance subjects that facilitate and support the procedure of recycling and maintaining clear water for environment would have much greater effect for everyone's benefit rather than abstract math or outdated writing subject or teach knowledge in area of discrimination stereotypes or main sources of decreasing demography which undoubtedly have an important connection with emigration, these and other relevant subjects would be more significantly and useful in coming years rather than classic literature or the function of mitochondria in the cell. By my personal experience I could tell that after numerous years people have spend learning geography only few persons in real world have use of it and the only things people can recoup after those painful years is distorced cliché that circulating in society or media not some legitimate facts about neighbour countries but prejudices that shape the picture in the eyes of public how countries look like, not to mention that it's even worse to place those countries on the map, again the few occasion when someone need to locate something on the map then high precision of the phone and google maps can give you a trustful as well as reliable hand of help, and indeed how many need to place the a country on the map today to get a job or to become successful entrepreneur?  Additional to above, critical thinking should be on the agenda to build a genuine opinion, confidence and ability to enable the skills for search or debunk controversial fake and biased news and replaced it with real facts from primary and authorised sources. Learning system should prepare competence for solving of emerging difficulties of future problems, or the best scenario would be preventing this obstacles with correct attitude from early commence of engaging children, pupils and students in problem solving actions.
[6]          There is no future revolutionary prospects of any changes for existed teaching system which also has solidified in helplessness and stuck with regret and horror in the well-known old school template. It's true that in the past for population the only available way to learn and memorize information and details came from the airy talks of a teacher, books, maps or scripts likewise people couldn't carry with themselfs a whole physical library with hundred and hundred of books behind them and utilize it when the persons consider to use it, and today not only the libraries over the world are in your disposition at any time but also the personal knowledge of each individual on the planet ethier it's a PhD in rocket science or an infant in kindergarten that is beating most of the adults in playing eGames.

Flexibility against immobility           

          Instead of adopting techniques that improve idealistic concepts of unwanted group disciplines better would be to assume enjoyable individual paths of stable and motivated growth of knowledge, desire and curiosity should be the guide motors for cultivating and refining acquaintance for tangible world . As everyone might know the paper degree from university or college, and the time students spend on numerous chairs rooms or libraries, not really qualify them for a guarantee employment position, in fact according to the last numbers from 2018 the college students which had participated in internship or co-ops arrangements had enriched their competence and got a job in 77% of cases[5]. Indeed first hand prerequisite of physical experience in directly related work environment generate more expertise and increase chances for a future employment than merely typical and common theoretical approach. 
          Since surroundings alter in our presence with Moore's speed, with both anticipated and repugnant interventions, it cause people to rethink of uncertainty once again what they will do tomorrow, either go to the same well-known old work or go to completely incomprehensive outlandish and bizarre new occupation. One could sympathize with the drivers and pilots, who soon will become without job, security or essential salary benefit, who struggle to make a big deal of influence against relentless determination of advanced technology, corporates and customers willingness to have a ride cheaper and safer than ever before in a self driving car, train, plane, bus or boat. Though on the other hand to not notice theirs indisposition and reluctance which enslave them to reach out from this scandalos outrageous modern time situation is equal to public shameful punishment and incapability of institutions preventing disruptive technology which propelled out unprepared people on the streets.
          Now onwards educational programs should teach to be flexible to lifetime changes and nurture curiosity and eagerness for troubleshooting issues. Outmoded school mentality teached and prepared for lifetime unruffled professions that don't fit anymore in the craziness and unbalanced of today's transformations. Experts in the education field fearless and authentic claim new thinking models as silliness bliss which lack the ground facts and empirical data[6] which would prove the fresh plus different and more productive concepts, and this is not their fault, because what sane person will act against the supreme system which taught them to be immobile and not flexibil? Specially if one have to adopt something totally opposite to normality, but exactly this what happen today, drivers who will lose their jobs as a drivers can't be anymore the same drivers as a result they should be requalified and remodeled almost entirely to possibly unconditional types of work as researcher or data collector employee in some DNA sequencing corporation. Though it might sound as impossible mission, to train and skill a driver to become the frontier of improvements and innovations in the latest marine power system or other recent startups, but it could still be achieved with focused and individual-generated approaches. LEARN BY DOING.

Beyond educational system

       
          To be the best in school and have only A grades doesn't offer the best jobs with the highest salaries, this confused statement goes in wrong way as our parents would chant but precisely this thought, explain Robert Kiyosaki in his book[7], in fact the A students are working for B students and the C students run the business. A students have the extreme ability to be focused and organised in the framework of the program thus the stiffness would never allow them to step aside to explore the new horizon instead this role was taken by C students who don't fear to fail are curios, non-routine, creative and innovative and the B students are somewhere in between.
          Anyhow mandatory grades are not usually equated to a job and seems to become a component of the glorious past as the up-to-date ambitious prototypes of schools appear. Finland as leader in the field of education provide in some schools project-based learning or even more extravagant learning shuttle "Ad Astra" founded by Elon Musk which wade against the flow to break traditional norms and old-fashioned mentality of present educational systems with a bold and reasonable vision of the learning of the future. The central core of teachings consists of flexibility, curiosity and engagement in problem solving actions or often process described as learn by doing method. Let's take an example to clarify the simplicity of such schemes: everyone are familiar with YouTube or Instagram where persons with low qualification or no legitim expertise at all take by assault attention of the spectators to display their magnificent results either thru talking, visualization or physical interaction, thus in one hand skills that never could taught in school and in the second hand real world application of skills with money profit as outcome.
[10]
          Or another continuous neglected example is egaming, not a single primary school in the world not even the unusual Ad Astra of Elon Musk had in mind to teach children to play games, maybe simply because the goal is to reach to the stars and not to develop strategies how to play a game, still millions of children and adults learn by them self to succeed and fail and again succeed and again fail until the master of game begin to take shape, not taking in account these factors is silly and uncultured in the time when the game industry generate $135 billion in 2018[8], the number is gigantic if in contrast the game industry would be a country and the money generated by it could be counted as GDP then it would take the place in the rank between Kuwait and Ukraine. Of course not all the gamer people earn enough money to sustain them self and maybe because they were wasting precious time in the school with boring subjects and not improving their gaming skills?
Improving competence in gaming at least is motivating and stimulating persons by unseen force to achieve goals, in comparison with vapid literature, math or writing. So why today the numbers of sport schools exceed 10.000 over the world but not even a single one for of esport school? Though meager number of colleges start to provide esport programs, it's unreachable and far too late in the lifetime to compete with those who began from age of 6 or 7, the infant age could be deluded and still not the juvenile age that overpass and defeat the competitors rather the assembled experience. Similarities of project-based learning and digital era cases strengthen the model of freedom of choices to explore the curiosity and to pursuit the path impulsed by motivation and passion. 
          With immense abundance of data and 24/7 online knowledge access, children from small ages have unprecedented advantages in following exactly what they are interested in and can spend so much time as they want pouring the latest information which is not even one hour old coming directly from the first source, looking back in retrospective their parents didn't possessed such affluent circumstances and for sure the only one source of knowledge was the teacher and the librarian with it's uncounted, dusty and monotonous books with fixed working hours between 8 to 17. If various knowledge are spread and hold in the global community and the only tool to require it is one device then considering the previous mentioned description it is straightforward to notice importance to teach children how to use that device and how to surf in the ocean of data rather than gather pupils in one room detached from external world and feed them with humdrum erudition.
          Now is the time to admit the complex changes in real world even some can't remark the obvious development of things, that is time to accost and redesign the model of our life and not only our way we learn today because one likely outcome could be the shift from public teacher teaching scheme to individual and self learning online platforms, regardless implication of educational institutions the shift will balance towards cheaper or free of charge learning materials which already today became a standard behavior, if you don't believe me ask GOOGLE. Another possible tendency could tilt in the garden of the companies either it would be by choice or necessity to attract new workforce with capability to custom-made specialists to fill the gaps of unusual tasks. The companies could become next education hub for future generations which could be subsidized by the government as tentative for teaching and preparing people to become experts with guarantee jobs. Anyhow such scenario have some important question to answer, would be children allowed to work from 6 or 7 years old without attending school? The answer is YES.

 Ethical dilemma in the present a completely unbiased and standard day in the future    

To assume that some company could teach and train a 9 year old child maybe in around one year or so to be able already to exercise with income in the organisation then with present child labor law that set 13 or 14 years of age as minimum age for employment it would be simply impossible to get so far right in this hypothetical assumption, though paradoxically against the same law a large numbers of kids under age 13 have youtube channels and would be timid to say that they earn so much money that is only enough to buy some luxury cars or deluxe real estates.
          Ryan's World, or the talkative and joyful kid who was 5 years old and earned in comfort millions of dollars[9] on the youtube but why he wasn't banned or persecuted  in conformity with child labor law? Or the youtube is not a sufficient typical and harmful to the health work? Or maybe because of absence of an employment and employer he is not categorized as minor worker? Or perhaps the parents abuse the family duty and exploit the kid's interest for toys for their advantageous profit? Because a 5 year old kid could not come by himself to be a youtuber, right? He can't choose to make a schedule to purchase more toys and produce more videos, right? Or he indeed manage all the plans, from driving to the store to shopping, making payments and finishing with editing the videos and uploading the content on the platform by him alone? Quite so, this real world example could easily be a prototype of the future businesses where parents alone today act as company while their child as a 5 years old employee. Hence I'm convinced to suspect a direct link between the future without traditional schools and minor age workers, sounds shocking but why someone need to visit the school if they can work and earn money even before the admission age to classes?  But more equivocal question look to escape from this childish fruitful story: when the Minimum Age Convention from 1973 will review the law that crack under pressure of losing aptness in advanced 2019? 

Langkawi, Malaysia | December 20, 2019

Source

[1]. Nuria Sanz, Sjur Bergan: "The heritage of European universities", 2nd edition, Higher Education Series No. 7, Council of Europe, 2006
[2]. https://www.helplesotho.org/the-obstacles-facing-students-in-lesotho/ - The Obstacles Facing Students in Lesotho
[6]. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39889523 - Could subjects soon be a thing of the past in Finland?
[7]. Robert Kiyosaki: WHY “A” STUDENTS WORK FOR “C” STUDENTS
[8]. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-12-18-global-games-market-value-rose-to-usd134-9bn-in-2018 - Global games market value rising to $134.9bn in 2018
[9]. https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/22/14031288/ryan-toys-review-biggest-youngest-youtube-star-millions - YOUTUBE'S BIGGEST STAR IS A 5-YEAR-OLD THAT MAKES MILLIONS OPENING TOYS

Pictures and photos

[1]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woman_teaching_geometry.jpg - Woman teaching geometry
[2]. https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14779917371 - Image from page 288 of "Self-surveys by colleges and universities" (1917)
[3]. https://www.needpix.com/photo/59796/school-classroom-boys-girls-students-teacher-female-woman-ecuador - School Classroom Boys Free Photo
[4]. https://gogogadget.store/blogs/news/new-and-future-of-gadget-in-business-world - NEW AND FUTURE OF GADGET IN BUSINESS
[5]. https://pixnio.com/people/children-kids/outdoor-education-using-water-quality-test-strips - outdoor, education, water, quality, test, strips
[6]. https://pxhere.com/en/photo/920370p - The free high-resolution photo of smartphone, hand
[7]. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-15/to-improve-your-chance-of-getting-a-job-dont-skip-your-college-internship - Skipped Your College Internship? You're Far Less Likely to Get a Job in Business
[8]. https://cpljobs.com/ie/cplinsights/finding-a-job/6-things-you-need-to-know-when-changing-jobs/ - 6 things you need to know when changing jobs
[9]. https://www.aavn.edu.vn/curriculum/american-grading-system-and-credits - AMERICAN GRADING SYSTEM & CREDITS
[10]. https://sea.pcmag.com/computer-console-gaming/32924/the-greatest-gaming-tournaments-in-the-world - The Greatest Gaming Tournaments in the World
[11]. https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Calgary-Gaming-Meetup/ - Microsoft Store at Chinook Centre - Gaming Events
[12]. https://www.toeicbachkhoa.net/speaking-3-phat-trien-chu-de-bai-8-online-learning/ - SPEAKING 3 – PHÁT TRIỂN CHỦ ĐỀ – BÀI 8: ONLINE LEARNING
[13]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan%27s_World - Ryan's World

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