The Danger of Schools Forgetting the Essence of the Human Element in their Programs by Roy Andersen

Parag Diwan wrote an interesting article about how Virtual Reality is ready to transform education. As Parag explains “Virtual Reality in education could replace textbooks with interactive educational experiences. ….Application in the areas such as Geography, History and Geology. One can explore places all over the world without having to leave the classroom in reality. This could provide opportunity to learn Geography, different languages and develop empathy for various cultural nuances. For history learning, one can go back in time and create tableau of that era and experience life and society as it existed then. Similarly, one can go deep inside the earth and experience the rock formation, origin of volcano, emergence of diamond and other precious metals. This is power of virtual reality.”

While I loved his article, I really want to stress the great danger we are creating for future generations by failing to balance the use of any form of software programs against the development of human skills.

The applications of virtual reality to student learning appear to be rewarding to the learner. I do like this "hands-on learning" idea and can agree how it improves memory retention and stimulates an inspirational mind, but I worry how a balance will be kept with human issues as education goes down this track.?

We are thinking of school as only a place for grades to be obtained. This is wrong. School should firstly be the place were children are taught how to be good social citizens and then, secondly, potential workers by the grades they obtain. This should be a most serious issue for schools to focus upon, as we move increasingly into a world dominated by artificial intelligence.

Yet, the reality is that we are failing to realize this factor of human development in school. This worries me greatly, as I believe this much explains the high rise in mental health issues with children today. A point raised by Paul Gavoni where he explained how the average age of depression today is 14 years old, while in 1978 it was 29.

We really must not let ourselves forget and lose the essence of raising our children in school to relate to each other through face to face discussion with real human beings. It is so vital for future generations that we do not overlook this in education today. My fear is that we are.

Roy Andersen

Please consider my work and 14 books on what is wrong with education. www.andersenroy.com