Execution of Solutions
All complaining and no solutions make Revolutionary Thinking a dull blog. My main purpose is to make my readers into leaders, not bottom feeders. So in my first two blogs (I want Revolutionary Thinking to be a cumulative idea) I throw down the gauntlet at the education system and make a rap sheet of the education system’s crimes against the youth. For those of you who missed it, here is a quick recap: The education system is repetitive and uninspiring, stuck in the past, too restrictive and made false promises.
Cynics and Critics
Now I’ve had responses from two people about these criticisms. One person didn’t like my no- holds-barred attitude and another person asked me what type of solutions I could provide to people who felt the same way. For the first person, I say the education system has been judging me all my life for the past 12+ years and in some cases, in the same exact no-holds-barred way, I’ve been judging it so I am well within my rights to express myself. As for the second person, he has a point. If someone is stuck in a pit with no way out and I shout into that pit that it sucks to be stuck in a pit, they already know that and I’m not helping. In fact, I may even make them feel worse. The logical and rational thing for me to do is help them out of that pit (that I myself at a young age was in).
Throwing the Rope of Hope
Ever since I was younger, I was thinking of creative and exciting ways of changing this education system into something that kids want to do rather than something they have to do, and I think that makes all the difference. I remember one of the things that I loved when I was in elementary school were field trips. I enjoyed them so much because it was the one chance where I finally got to leave the boring incubation chambers and see the real world for what it actually was. I remember one of my favorite field trips was to the California Science Center (I volunteered there later in life). Field trips were inspiring adventures you’d get to go on. It gave hope that there was something exciting in the future and life wasn’t all about being judged by grades you’d get on homework that didn’t even relate to you. Speaking of grades…
Lip Service is not a Commodity
Even though I did well in my high school years I was still frustrated afterwards. The education system deals in the economics of lip service and judgment, and that doesn’t last as I’ve spoken about in my initial blog post. When you make a Facebook post, some people like it and some people dislike it. Some people leave comments under it and for me that’s how I view the education system: Your assignment is the post, the like to dislike ratio is the grade and the comments are the lip service on your assignment. Now even after you’ve gotten all the praises and judgments in the world - after that’s all over you’re left with nothing. To be left with something that lasts, at some point the system should teach students about the one actual commodity which is money. The sooner young people learn about Consumer Science and Home Economics, the better. These topics are extremely valuable in the kind of life you live after school and are something that actually relate to what you have to do at home. (Ironically, after-schooling homework at home is irrelevant.) Another topic you can actually take with you is EQ or emotional intelligence,which is about knowing what kinds of people and situations keep you happy in life. The topic of what kids passionate about and how that passion can be monetized actually brings me to my next point.
Starting the Chiseling Process
At a certain stage when young kids are proficient in the basics of reading, writing and math skills, the chiseling process (I spoke about it in my second post) should commence. What I mean by this is that kids should be allowed to experiment until they find something that speaks to who they are and what they love in life. Let there be a day when professionals in any field come and talk to them about that field. In addition to that idea, when we don’t have hands-on learning in school and only focus on the theoretical, we do a great disservice to our youth. We’ve all heard the phrase “different strokes for different folks.” As adults, we know that not everyone likes the same food, wears the same clothes, enjoys the same forms of entertainment or wants to be with the same people. So, why on Earth do we assume all kids learn equally well from the same style? How can we not see that we have a one-size-fits-all system that leaves kids behind? In fact, some schools are doing so bad that I call it “one-size-fits-none.” This process of chiseling out the mediocrity from our kids so we can find their talent and uniqueness begins with understanding that every child is unique, and instead of that uniqueness being ignored and undermined, it should be found and encouraged. The way of finding it and encouraging it is to try different styles when you see that one style is failing to produce results. In fact, Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
A Bridge to the Future
I’ve laid a lot on the table, but if you’re fundamentally opposed to all of these new ideas because of preconceived notions of kids not having any idea of what they want to do in life or being way too young to have any kind of autonomy over themselves, I’ve heard that before and I even discussed it before https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0LCoWAjdps&t=392s. I’m hoping you’ll agree with me on one point though, which is that young people need a transition period, especially in the latter years of high school. Now, I want you to think of the education world and the career world as two different islands with people swimming from one to the other. One of three things can happen: They can be eaten by sharks (scammers), or they can just run out of energy and drown on the way there (quitting the job hunt). Some of them do make it but they may end up in a dead-end job (i.e. one that doesn’t feed their passion) while the smallest percentage actually find the one they want. Wouldn’t it be better if we created a bridge between these two islands rather than have our children take that risky swim? How we create that bridge is by bridging them to the societies they live in. The schools can, with all the resources they have, bring in certified life coaches to connect these children with the right people to guide them on their path so they have at least one form of experience in a certain job that they can use later on in their lives. Well, I leave it up to you, dear reader. What do you think? Are these ideas to be implemented or rejected? If the latter, why?