Re-Imagining a Contemporary Education

As I sit here, house-ridden with covid-19, I've had bucketloads of time to unwind, play a shit ton of computer games, read books, do some self-development work and even write a blog post (look at that)! Today's the 6th day of contracting covid upon returning from my fruitful trip to India - I'm almost recovered without the capability to taste nor smell anything 👍

Jokes aside, I am really grateful for this time to be able to let time pass by me without a worry in the world. I've been catching up on my reading and boy, do I have something to share today! It has gotten my juices and blood flowing. I'll try my best to articulate and share my thoughts whilst I plow through this brain fog... So please bear with me!

This is the book that has been accompanying and fuelling me during my home quarantine, and must I say it is an inspiring and thought-provoking read, especially towards the transformation of education systems in our modern society.

I would like to engage your imagination with a scenario:

Imagine our education systems are reformed to better suit the needs, demands & expectations of our rapid-changing world. How would that look like for YOU? What would change, and what would remain?

(just a minute will do, read on once you've painted this landscape for yourself)

I've always been interested and curious in human design. How are we designed? Why are we designed the way we are? More importantly, the pedagogy and psychology behind different communities and their behavioural-social thought models. So you can just imagine the golden nuggets hidden in this bite-sized juice bomb of a read (personally, I would call it a manual, I'll get to the why in a bit)

Alright, let's get started on this journey - ahead with the title of today's post: "Re-Imagining A Contemporary Education"

We Live in Two Worlds

As a human species, we collectively reside on this planet called Earth. The Earth is made up of gorgeous natural landscapes, the big blue ocean, as well as man-made cities and societies. Where we each reside in the world is just a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny slice of what's lies beyond our scope of horizon, knowledge and perception. However, despite sharing Earth with our 7.887 billion other neighbours, there is ONE world that we have ownership towards.

a digital masterpiece made with canva

... more like a 5 year old school project

Sir Ken Robinson lays it out that we each live in two worlds - an inner world and outer world. The outer world is as our eyes perceive - the cities we've built and live in, the communities we interact with, the natural landscape of flora and fauna, the economical and political systems, and even the weather. However, the inner world is what our 'heart' sees and feels - our beliefs, values, fears, thoughts, gut systems, internal wiring, feelings, all the wonderful concoctions that makes each of us unique.

The bridge of these two worlds together is education. It is the glue/knitting stitch of ourselves and the world we navigate in. Hence why there are constructs like schools, which basically means a community of learners. Where a group of learners come to learn about a specific topic and acquire knowledge and refine their skillsets in (I'm using skillsets in a really loose manner).

💡 Understanding our human design is the key to understanding the world around us, and how we can take advantage of it to the best of our capabilities so we can achieve our fullest potential. 💡

One of the biggest pitfalls of our current education systems is that it is "stuck in the past". Sure, it's been reviewed once every X years, but have we really dared to sit down and deconstruct and think about why?

💙 What's the purpose of education, and what are the core principles that surrounds education that should be at the heart of learning? 💙

Sir Ken Robinson has laid it out to 4Ps and 8Cs.

4 Ps - 4 Purposes

Before I move on to the 4 Purposes of Education, we need to first debunk a myth:

Intelligence and Creativity are two separate entities

(this cannot be further from the truth - which is that they're more like sisters)

The grading systems in schools are based mostly according to intellectual intelligence (IQ): you're placed in a 'box' with other students that scored similarly to you depending on the number/grade that is on that piece of paper. In this instance, circumstance affects learning. The quality of learning is directly co-related to the grade on that paper. Whilst that does help to categorise and help with classroom/learning management, the narrative that might be portrayed to the students would be "you're only as good as X, if not a bit better or worse. Therefore, this is the group of students you should hang out with etc." It serves untrue and quite frankly, self-esteem affecting narratives that could potentially affect their mental health. Okie, this might be of a reach, but I personally believe that it holds some validity because I've seen friends or circumstances like this before.

One of my formative learning experiences when it comes to education, was when I enrolled into a arts-based education (SOTA). We did the usual core subjects like maths & sciences, but we also learned the softer subjects like arts and humanities. I had the privilege of witnessing and experiencing a glimpse into a 'holistic' education structure where the soft subjects had equal importance to the core subjects. I had seen where the potential of such an education could lead to, and the quality of people that has benefitted from that system. Bringing it home to intelligence and creativity, they are not two separate entities. In fact, they couldn't be further from the truth. For instance, take mathematics. It involves a combination of knowledge including abstract concepts (algebra), processes, complex problem solving skills and propositional knowledge. Likewise for visual arts, it involves a certain degree of mathematics, abstraction and even physics. Intelligence cannot exist without creativity, and vice versa. Otherwise, how would Einstein think of the famous e = mc2 formulae? I like to think of them as disciplines rather than subjects. The discipline, in this context, refers to a branch of study. Maybe it's more helpful that way, and way more holistic rather than seeing it as separate entities.

With that framework in mind, I'll lay out the 4 Purposes of Education according to Sir Ken Robinson, in the following 4 categories.

again, another 6 year old school project quad-coloured column

Learning is fluid, and education is a man-made system that needs to be fluid with the times. So, what does it mean to be 'educated' nowadays? Is it enough to just be literate and book-smart with what's taught in the classrooms? Or is it way more than what is being fed to the students, and it requires them to take ownership of their own learning experience and seek curiosity in where their interests lies?

Don't get me wrong, I see many benefits of our current education system. Like you, I'm a result of the current education system. So this is not an open invitation to bash and say all sorts of shit about it. Read the room, sis. I just wonder about re-imagining what education, learning and even schools could be if we want to cultivate greater culture, a deeper sense of citizenship, greater tolerance towards differences etc. This book written by Sir Ken Robinson and his daughter, Kate Robinson, has opened up my mind and worldview about the daringness to dream, and perhaps even take small steps towards re-designing a more holistic learning experience for my future children. What are the core principles that each student should take away from education?

The 8Cs

i'm starting to like these diagrams, it really helps with presenting ideas clearly!

Sir Ken Robinson describes these 8 Cs as 'competencies'. As disciplines and learning are fluid, these competencies should be interwoven from the beginning of a student's educational journey and nurtured throughout. Like a workout, muscles atrophy and deteriorate if there isn't any work being put into it. It's the same with intelligence and creativity.

These 4Ps and 8Cs are integral to being human. They encompass a holistic view from emotional, social, spiritual, economical and other facets of well-being and development to nurture so that we may thrive in the world. The really great part of this, is that these 4Ps and 8Cs can be adapted and re-shaped into whatever context we want to understand more of. Eg: if I want to put this towards dance education, everything still applies with probably slightly adapted purposes and competencies!

I'm going to continue soaking in the goodness of this read. I am going to leave you with this mind-etching TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson where he talks about how schools kill creativity: