Education is Failing to Prepare Our Kids for Life

Raise your hand if you ever felt like something important was left out of your education. Something that could have helped you thrive in life, not just in school.

Well, you are definitely not alone. It turns out that many public schools are failing to teach real-life skills that are crucial to success and fulfillment. Side note: regardless of the perceived choices parents have when it comes to education, 90% of students in north America go through the public system.

It is well documented that the modern education system is facing unprecedented challenges in preparing students for the demands of the 21st century. From the rapidly changing landscape of work and society to the mental health crisis facing teenagers, we need to rethink our approach to education to ensure that students have the skills, knowledge, and well-being they need to succeed.

Challenge #1 - Human Brains in a VUCA World

One major inescapable challenge is that our world is becoming increasingly VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), and our human brain, evolved to meet the challenges of survival, are not be equipped to navigate this new landscape. Studies suggest that our cognitive biases may be more suited for what life was like 50,000 years ago, leaving us ill-prepared for the complexities of the modern world.

Challenge #2 - Needed Vs What is Delivered

At the same time, the skills needed by the future workforce are evolving rapidly, and our current K-12 public school system is struggling to keep up. While there is little debate about the gaps between what skills the future workforce will need to thrive and what the modern public school system delivers, there is still much work to be done to bridge this divide.

Key Obstacle – 19th Century Institutions are Not Suited for the 21st Century

Failure #1 – Schooling is Not Learning

One of the major obstacles is the HOW of outdated and ineffective teaching methodologies used in modern education systems. Rote memorization, passive learning, and standardized testing are no longer sufficient to prepare students for the demands of the 21st century. Instead, we need to explore new ways of thinking and learning that can help students develop 21st-century skills like creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Failure #2 – The Skills Gap is Known

In addition, the WHAT, the content taught in modern education systems is disconnected from the realities of the 21st-century workplace and society. To bridge this gap, we need to align our education system with the needs of the modern workforce and society, and equip students with the real-life skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

Failure #3 - Teaching Efficiency Over Learning Effectiveness

Unfortunately, the modern education system has become overly focused on teaching efficiency at the expense of learning effectiveness, with negative consequences for both students and society. We need to shift our focus to brain-based, student-centered learning that promotes engagement, motivation, and deep learning.

Dire Consequences - Failing in Life

Finally, it's important to recognize the link between education and mental health outcomes for teenagers. The modern education system is failing to address the mental health crisis facing teenagers, and schools need to cover more than academics and take a more holistic approach that empowers students to reach their full potential as individuals and valued member of their community.

The Problem Is Clear - The Public System Is Doing What it Was Designed To Do.

Without question, the numerous challenges facing the modern education system are well known and significant; from underfunding to overburdened teachers, making it difficult to provide the quality education our kids need and deserve.

Recalibration Time

But here's the good news: We know what real-life skills empower children to thrive AND research shows very clearly, actionable and attainable steps to how the brain actually learns, better. We have the WHAT and the HOW and it's time to apply these insights to the way we educate our children.

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ~ Buckminster Fuller

The Solution – A New ‘Why, How and What’ for the 21st Century

This is where The Fulfillment Source Code (TFSC) comes in.

Our non-profit’s mission is to empower kids with real-life skills to thrive, not just in school, but in all areas of life.

Our veritable Real-Life Skills Adventure is curated from Nobel Prize winners and some of the world's brightest professors from Harvard, Stanford, and more. It contains the latest in neurology, biology, psychology, nutrition, and genetics, all delivered in a revolutionary brain-based, powerful-learning format we call the, “Adventure Format”.

TFSC is so effective because we are designed for the human brain. We don’t focus on ‘teaching’, we focus on facilitating the adventurer’s learning, according to how the human brain naturally learns; progressing from ignorance to awareness, awareness to competency, competency to mastery.

We leverage the brain’s natural tendencies and desires of both the Adventurers and the Guides. The FSC’s Adventure is designed to be enjoyable, engaging, and effective for students. Plus, it's super easy to onboard, simple to deliver, and is actually fun for facilitators.

But don’t take our word for it, let the kids tell you (click here).

We’ll show you how easily this brain-based, powerful learning adventure can equip schools, teachers and parents and therefore students with the real-life skills, knowledge, and well-being they need to succeed in the 21st century and beyond.

Join us in the Fulfillment Revolution.

Adventure Awaits!

Join the #FulfillmentRevolution and share this article

Learn about the FSC here: https://linktr.ee/samgoodmanfsc

or hear it from the kids! https://bit.ly/Kids_say_it_best

The Fulfillment Source Code

Know better. Do better. Becoming better.

501(c)3 - UBI: 604284339

Supporting studies

Challenge #1 - Human Brains in a VUCA World

• "The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030" (Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, 2017)
• "The Future of Jobs Report 2020" (World Economic Forum, 2020)
• "The Neuroscience of Creativity" (National Institutes of Health, 2019)

Challenge #2 - Needed Vs What is Delivered

• "Future Work Skills 2020" (Institute for the Future, 2011)
• "The Future of Jobs Report 2020" (World Economic Forum, 2020)
• "Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works" (McKinsey & Company, 2012)

?Failure #1 – Schooling is Not Learning

• "21st Century Skills and Competences for New Millennium Learners in OECD Countries" (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2019)
• "Learning 2030: A Vision for the Future of Education" (World Economic Forum, 2018)
• MEASURING WHAT MATTERS: CREATIVITY IN SCHOOLS (https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MWM-Creativity-summary.pdf)

?Failure #2 – The Skills Gap is Known

• "The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2021" (INSEAD, 2021)
• "Skills of the Future: How to Thrive in the Complex New World" (Accenture, 2021)
• "Future of Jobs Report 2020" (World Economic Forum, 2020)

Failure #3 - Teaching Efficiency Over Learning Effectiveness

• Traditional vs Non-Traditional Teaching and Learning Strategies -- The Case of E-Learning! Tularam, Gurudeo A.; Machisella, Patrick International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning, v19 n1 p129-158 (2018).
• A Comparative Study on the Effectiveness of Traditional and Modern Teaching Methods, Yuemeng Wang, Syracuse University, New York, United States (2022).
• Enhancing students’ motivation through brain-based learning (February 2019) (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331679429_Enhancing_students'_motivation_through_brain-based_learning)
• The Role of Feedback in Learning and Motivation, November 2016, Recent Developments in Neuroscience Research on Human Motivation (pp.175-202)

Finally, here's a study that can be used to reinforce the importance of mental health outcomes for teenagers:

Dire Consequences - Failing in Life

• "The State of Mental Health in America" (Mental Health America, 2021)
• "The Effects of Mental Health on Workforce Productivity in the United States" (National Institutes of Health, 2019)
• Mental health at work, 28 September 2022 (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-at-work)
• Adolescent Well-Being: A Definition and Conceptual Framework (October 2022): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7423586/

The Problem Is Clear - The Public System Is Doing What it Was Designed To Do

• The Politics of American Education. Paul E. Peterson, Review of Research in Education Vol. 2 (1974), pp. 348-389 (42 pages), https://www.jstor.org/stable/1167166
• https://utorontopress.com/9781487586966/the-politics-of-education/
• The Near-Myth of Our Failing Schools" (The Atlantic, 1997)
• "The Origins of Public Education" (Education Next, 2013)

?The Solution – A New ‘Why, How and What’ for the 21st Century

• The New Learning Economy and the Future of Work" (McKinsey & Company, 2018)
• 21st Century Skills Development through Project-Based Learning" (International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2020)