Does Education suit 21 century ?

I'm an eighteen-year old student who has spent more than 13 years in school studying. During those years, I have heard thousands of words that vary from “the smartest”, ”the most intelligent” to “the most stupid”, ”the dumbest” etc... In fact, I’m sure that many of you have heard these as well. These words make us ask ourselves a simple, yet complicated question”Are we all equally intelligent? " . Many would say that we are not and we do not have the same degree of intelligence. Personally, I disagree with them because their sole definition of intelligence is linked only to books, math, physics , science etc... and all the stuff we are obliged to learn in school. Believing that the only way to be considered as intelligent and smart person is by necessarily performing well in math and physics is like saying that all pictures must be in blue or red. I believe that we are all intelligent and creative but in our different, unique way (Theory of multiple intelligences). Thus, being an excellent student does not necessarily mean you are the smartest, it only means that the established educational system is suitable for you.

What most people do not know is that the current system was designed and conceived for a different era of time and established precisely in the economic circumstances of the industrial revolution, during the enlightenment era (19th century ) whereas before that there were no public educational systems. Our current educational systems were developed in a large part to meet the labor needs of the Industrial Revolution. So, the problem is that these systems are inherently unsuitable to the different circumstances of our 21st century.

On one hand, during the last 40 years, world population grew rapidly than ever before; we were 3 billion, and we are today more than 7 billion. on the other hand , no one can deny that modern technologies are manipulating and affecting many aspects of our lives ; the way we eat , how we work , means of divertissement, the way we feel etc. and we have reached a point where we cannot even imagine our lives without technology . The current Educational Systems were obviously not designed to our modern society and our modern life. That’s why we are living some controversial problems and we have to adjust that. We need to revolt against this global issue and to understand that education is the key to make a change in the world. In fact , around the globe there are many initiatives which are directed to create a global educational system that is based on individuality , imagination and creativity as opposed to standarization and conformity. The International Commission on financing global education opportunity is one of the initiatives related the United Nations programs (www.educationcommission.org).

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“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”, Albert Einstein