Don’t Educate your child.

I chose the title of this blog to be deliberately provocative. I believe strongly that the approach we take to education in most modern cities is deeply flawed. 

While I am a huge proponent of Knowledge and Learning, based on my own life experiences and now watching my two daughters at school, I disagree with the formal, factory-based process of education that doesn’t prepare our youth adequately for the working world and life. 

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education – Mark Twain

Here are some of the reasons - 

Educational content is wrong.

Most of what is taught in the first 12 years – basic education – is not really used in real life!

I am not talking about reading, writing, and basic arithmetic. Of course, these fundamentals are important to being able to communicate, count money, tell time, and to-some-extent understand the world around us. But, when was the last time you used the quadratic formula, the periodic table, balanced chemical equations, needed an imaginary number, quoted Shakespeare, had to recall the date of the Magna Carta, or really needed to apply any of the memorized facts or formulas which we all spent so many late nights trying to master? 

Don’t get me wrong, these topics are important to learn from the past and to problem-solve, but a content approach that treats all students the same and focuses on memorization rather than application is doing a disservice. Ifone is going to specialize in a particular field that needs you to look at covalent bonds, great, but they do not need to be part of basic education.

Furthermore, these things are taught at an age when our minds are not developed to be able to understand the concepts. Most children go through learning in a mechanical way rather than understanding the essence of the concept and how and when to apply it because they are just not ready for it.

Education is too stressful.

It is painful to watch kids these days. They wake up early (my daughters wake up at 6am!) with swollen eyes, rush through breakfast, spend 8 hours in school, maybe participate in extra-curricular activities, and come back home to spend another 1 or 2 hours with homework, projects, and studying. 

8 hours is equivalent to a full-time job, but even still, our education experts think that is not enough. That 8 hours of group classroom learning needs to be supplemented with additional hours at home. I’d suggest, that we rethink how we’re using classroom time to incorporate group learning and individualized learning time to create a more multi-dimensional learning experience in school, so that outside of school our youth can focus on building up interests, hobbies, their imagination, social skills, quality time with family, and more.

The stress is getting extreme these days. I see parents sweating bullets thinking about which kindergarten / nursery their child needs to attend. There are even “interviews” and “entrance exams” for children to get these! I find this unbelievable.  

Being a child is a very special time in a person’s life. It is the one time when a human being should not be stressed – there is enough stress later in life. A child should not be burdened with so much academics that they lose the only time in their life where they should be free to play and develop their imagination. They will become happier human beings and more creative and innovative as a result. 

There is an amazing Ted Talk by Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) that I encourage you to view.

Education is currently a finite process.

Our education model has evolved to a 12 + 4 approach. 12 years of basic education and 4 years of higher education and then it ends, unless you go on for a Master’s Degree or PHD. 

That does not work in today’s society, and it will be an even greater challenge tomorrow given that we constantly read how people will be displaced by new technologies because what they have been educated to work on is quickly becoming obsolete.

If we approach learning as a life-long process and embrace things like on-the-job training, taking courses to learn a new skill, or other methods of self-learning, we would not be in this place. 

Learning should be a continuous process.

Education is one-dimensional.

We use academic success, grades, and test scores to measure a child’s intelligence. 

This is deeply flawed.

This approach only measures someone’s ability to understand a concept and memorize it to reproduce it in exams.

It does not measure problem-solving ability which to me is true intelligence. And, it does not measure the ability to “apply” the knowledge gained.

Further, academic intelligence is only one dimension. There are many other dimensions that a person could be talented in or passionate about. 

-      Some people have a literary bent.

-      Some people have a mathematical bent.

-      Some people love music.

-      Some people are athletic.

-      Some are great communicators.

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. – Albert Einstein

While some of you will say that a lot of basic education does include all of the above, the fact is that the importance is always placed on academics (especially STEM) and the rest are not treated as important. When there are budgets to be cut, art and music programs are the first to go.

I know many people that I think are highly intelligent but did not do well academically.

Conversely, I know many people who did extremely well academically but struggled in real life. 

Teachers…

Teaching should be one of the toughest professions to get into and one of the most highly paid. The impact of the right teacher on a child is profound and the reverse is also true.

I‘ve seen my children struggle in a particular subject one year only to ace it the next year, and it is all because they had a bad teacher one year and a great teacher the next. Just because someone is an expert on a topic does not mean they will be able to teach it well. This takes a special ability to master the content and then also communicate it in a way that connects with students that learn and think differently.

A teacher that is inspirational, motivating and knows how to simplify complex concepts is worth their weight in gold. We need many more of them, and they should be paid much more than what they get today.

I also believe that teachers need to be assessed by students and need feedback to improve. Bill Gates (@BillGates) has supported this idea (albeit with mixed results, seemingly, due to implementation issues). You can view his Ted Talk here:

Education models in places like India do not make people employment ready.

In poor developing nations like my home country, India, it is a commonly-accepted fact that education is the way to escape poverty and a way to a better life. 

For some, especially the naturally gifted children, it maybe so, but for the vast majority this is not the case.

First, it is a 16-year commitment for a poor family. 

Second, while India has some of the best institutions available to the elites or the naturally gifted, the options for the poor are just not up to standards. And lastly, the number of jobs relative to the number of people is far less, meaning the chances of an “average” person getting a job after investing 16 years in his or education is very slim. 

Education ignores social challenges

The biggest challenges facing us these days are social. We live in a divided world. A world divided by nationality, race, religion, etc. 

We need to build bridges with each other, and the best time to do that is when we are young. We need to teach our children that we live in a pluralistic world and should respect everyone.

A lot of us give lip service to this, but more needs to be done. 

Our educational system should include global travel in which we spend time with people who are different than us, and we should do that at an early age. 

We should learn as many languages as we can so that we develop a native understanding of other cultures and their value systems.

We should formally be taught how to take care of our beautiful planet. How to be sustainable. We should have exposure to nature to appreciate it and to build values into our future decision-making skills. 

A new vision…

I’m not an expert, and I don’t have all the answers but some thoughts in my mind are the following – 

• Basic education should be limited to 3 to 4 years. After that, perhaps we start to track students based on their interests and where they are excelling into academic tracks, more similar to vocational training. 
• Teachers should be paid 10x of what they are today, but it should also be 10x more difficult to be a teacher.
• No homework.
• Learning should be self-directed so that a child learns at his or her own pace and focuses on his or her natural interest areas.
• Learning other languages should start early and should be part of basic education. 
• Rethink the approach to testing from memorization to knowledge application with more of a focus on problem-solving built into education. 
• Teach our children to be custodians of this planet and how to take care of it.
• Allow our children to travel at an early age to spend time with people who are different so that they learn to appreciate other cultures, thought processes, value systems, and become more pluralistic human beings.  

There are too many kids who struggle in education and end up thinking it is their fault. They internalize, that they were not “good enough”. I was one of them. But, I got lucky and eventually did OK professionally. More than my academic skills my ability to day-dream, i.e. have a vision, ability to take calculated risk, work-hard, communicate with passion and work with trust and integrity have allowed me to get to where I am. 

Rather than blame the children and parents for any under-performance, we should hold the system, the methods, the schools and the teachers accountable first. The children should be the last to be scrutinized.

I encourage you to listen to Sonam Wangchuk (@Wangchuk66) who runs an incredibly inspiring school in the northern part of India.

As our world continues to change, I only feel that rethinking our approach to education will become more important than ever to prepare our youth for the jobs of the future and to become well-rounded people equipped to solve the great challenges our world is facing today and perhaps, some we have not yet even begun to imagine.