Chapter 4: Education is Messed Up
Everything in our society has evolved besides education.
My name is Augustin Vallée. I am a 24 year old, French aerospace engineer. Like many people I don’t want to keep living in this world. At least on the path we are on right now. I see where we will end up in a few years and I don’t want my future to be like that. I am using Medium as an outlet to give you my point of view and most importantly as a place to have a conversation with you. I want to find ways to make the world a better place and I need your help.
Feel free to comment what you thought about this article, ask me questions and correct me if I made some mistakes (I am only human, we all make mistakes). Help me find a roadmap to make the world a better place, find the best solutions for our future and the future of our kids. Let’s start to change things for the better, together, right here and right now. Once again, please speak up, this is a conversation.
The image above really looks normal to us because this is the way our education had been, like our parents and grandparents before us. We have all been in a classroom in front of a teacher listening to what they have to say for hours. And it’s been exactly like that for centuries. Our world has evolved in so many ways with mind blowing technologies, but education has not.
It really is starting to be a problem. We now have so many ways to learn, by ourselves, on the internet through YouTube or websites like Udemy. Almost every kid can go on his own on the internet to have the exact same information his teacher would give him. What is the point to stay in class for hours if you can get the answers on your own in a few minutes ? There isn’t any, at least in a kid’s mind.
The interaction of between the student and the teacher has drastically changed through time. Before teachers were the best way to learn. They were also a powerful figure to get the kids to behave the way the “should”. It doesn’t work like that anymore. Sadly, it hasn’t been understood in the regular school system. Teachers are still painted as the figure that needs to be respected for his knowledge and power that needs to be followed. It doesn’t make any sense to tell kids to behave a certain way without any explanations when they have hundreds of contrary examples.
Personality is destroyed and reshaped in a way that is supposed to be the “good one”. Every single person is supposed to have the same basic knowledge and behave the same way with others. That doesn’t take into account the basis of humans, which is being different. We all have different interests and we are all good at different things. Even on our personality some of us introverted and others are extroverted. None of that is included in the learning process. Being unique is punished, they are told they are bad kids when they are only expressing themselves in a different way. For example, I am good at math and physics, but I can’t draw and I am a terrible writer. And yet I received the same education as a great artist that doesn’t understand math.
We think that everything is important for everybody to know. It is not at all. Why should someone that is passionate about science should know the meaning behind a Victor Hugo’s books ? It is culture and history. Well, yeah but I give more importance about space than literature, for me this is more important and yet it is not taught at all in school.
We see innovative schools popping up with different approaches, but they all have something in common. They are all based around learning with action. They involve the kids in the learning process, they are not some spectators anymore, they are actors of their education. This way we can see what they are really good at and what they really love. And most importantly push them toward those directions to make them the best version of themselves.
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
This quote from Einstein is the most accurate that could have ever been made. By pushing kids towards things they are not good at and things they will not need is straight out evil. The only result is making them think they are not worthy. That doesn’t do anything important in their life because they are not good enough at school. They might be the best at something but they will never know because they would have been judged on skills that don’t have anything to do with them.
I want to build a place where we can discuss this war and find a strategy to get all of us out of it as soon as possible and with a long term solution. I can’t do it alone and I need your help. Let’s start a conversation right here to find a way to put those thoughts into actions.