Education

So, Ive been thinking about this article for awhile. I haven't seemed to quite tie all of my thoughts together, but trust me... I have some thoughts. The main ideas I'd like to touch on today are as follows; what's wrong with our system, when does knowledge happen, and lastly qualifications. Not to sound all professional or like I'm writing a dissertation here, but here's some of my thoughts, let's talk.As I said earlier I have been thinking about this topic for awhile. I want to do a full length podcast on it in the future, but for now this will do. We can start at the beginning of when this idea spawned in my curious brain. A ted talk (which I will link below) that discusses education and the education system. Now what he discusses is more along the lines of defining who comes out successful and how the system kills creativity, which I agree with, but I wanted to focus on some other points as well. Our education system teaches students everything we have known before. It also teaches students to focus on correctness. There is a line that the speaker says that I love, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." Our system criticizes those who are wrong as well as in the classroom environment we find other students mocking or speaking down to those who try and fail. Failure is one of our greatest tools for growth and learning. Now before you start yelling facts at me about history and math etc.. I want to say that not all learning is subjective. There are factual pieces we must learn and facts are quite important, but there is also areas in which we need to be more open.Take a look at a group of students in kindergarden. They are very curious, they ask questions about everything, they are very impressionable. Now look at a group of graduating high school seniors. Most of them ask few questions. Do what they are asked of in class and can't wait for the day to be over. Where do we lose them? I couldn't tell you the exact answer, but my opinion is this. Our school system does not incentivize creativity. It does not fully prepare people for what is next. It also does not encourage us to grow through failure. It does teach us memorization, preparation, organization and some other skills, but overall I think the system is broken. This is one of the reasons why I don't think college is for everybody. It's also a reason we need to take a deeper look at how we can better educate and prepare future generations.This leads me to topic number 2, when does knowledge "happen"? I have been teaching in Vietnam for a couple months now and t recurring theme keeps happening. I often find student being able to repeat what I say or what the book says, but not actually internalize it. Not actually comprehend what they are learning, but rather memorizing a script in order to repeat it to whomever they may meet. Which is similar in our school systems here in the West. We are often asked to memorize material  and use it for a test. We then dump that out of our brain in order to stuff in more information for the next examination. Creating a constant loop of memorize and dump similar to the style of learning in my classes I teach. Why do we do this? Why do we not read/teach/learn for comprehension and understanding rather than test the short term capability of someone's memory to spit out a 5-7 minute presentation on the effects of write-offs on a businesses bottom line??!?! (ok, I'm calm now) So, when does knowledge happen? I think it may start with some memorization, but it is when you actually begin to care about the subject enough to continue learning it. Example being watching the same lecture over and over again until you know what facts they are using in the speech that you can then also utilize in your own discussions in the future. Allowing you to not only better understand a subject you are interested in, but actually learn about it rather than regurgitate the information for one presentation. It's hard to say when we have internalized something and when we have just memorized it, but this is something for you to think about. What do you actually know vs. what have you just spat back up from a book you kind of read once?Lastly, qualifications. This I have spoke on before, but recently has come up again. Ownership does not mean expertise. By this I mean, just because you have a title at the end of your business card does not mean you know everything. It also does not mean you are the only person entitled to an opinion. Free speech and freedom of opinion is important in today's society. I think that through these ideals we can truly see the vetting of an idea. It allows people to speak and fail as well as succeed. Speak your opinion and vet the idea to the masses. Try to gain perspective through other opinions and open up yourself to learning more through other people and their work. Just because you are a professor, or have worked in the industry, or succeeded at the sport does not make you the expert. Stay humble and remember the quote, "if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room." Focus on getting better and learning, not proclaiming your intelligence. Through this we are doing what the speaker calls "inflation" and were creating a false value on a degree. Having a degree does not make you intelligent, nor does working for 30 years. Competence does not come through just accolades or time. It comes from working, learning, and growing.Education is such an important thing in our lives. It's what should teach us about ourselves, life, and what we really want to do. I may not know how to fix the system and I may just be another person ranting about our education system and it's flaws... but what I do believe is this. That we need to do something. We need to focus on teaching future generations more about creativity, more about problem solving, more about learning how to understand themselves and how to grow. Focus on the process not the result. My last thoughts, we are all different. One solution will not fit all. We need to work on that portion, but again something is needed. I love this quote and it will be my last sentence. A great example of a poor ideology most likely learned in University/College. A CFO asks a CEO, "what if we invest in our employees and they leave?" The CEO responds, "what if we don't and they stay?"On Purpose,Matt

"Education is not just about going to school and getting a degree. It's about widening your knowledge and absorbing the truth about life." - Shakuntala Devi

Ted Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY