Things they don't teach you at school

? This week's card is about gaps in our education system.

The current education system is still based on the last decade's premise of preparing a workforce for future jobs to keep feeding the industry. Each year, batches of Accountants, teachers, engineers, architects, IT folks, marketing people, and all the other armor of professions one may find on the education system list.?

Therefore we still ask our little kids, "what do you want to do when you grow up?" – as if saying at the same time, "we need to keep providing manpower to keep this world turning, if possible faster and more productive."

You may remember the exchange that is said to have happened between a teacher and little John Lennon to that question during a school class. His answer was "to be happy," to which the teacher told him, "you didn't understand the question," and he answered, "you didn't understand life." We can debate if that happened that way or if those have been the terms, but the bottom line is that many decades have passed, but we're still at the same standstill point.?

? Our school system is a giant mass-production assembly line. It doesn't care who you are, your strengths, passions, or specifics. You will go through semester after semester exactly as all your class colleagues, almost forced to leave behind your personality. They are not preparing someone to be happy or to have a pleasant life; they are preparing a professional worker—almost a machine.

? Most school programs and degrees are based on what the world needs outside and how you can eventually make a living. But very few are about how to live a life and form human beings capable of exploring curiosity and seeking the best in them that they can offer to the world.??

? We learn many subjects, but most of them we will never make practical use of throughout our lives, but they are still part of the curriculum. We keep forming professionals without sound walls and preparing for everything life throws at them. And you can train an excellent professional, but if you don't prepare the person, the professional will fail somehow. Putting it in modern words, he will lack work/life skills. He may have work skills, so he needs life skills.??

? I would like to end with a thought-provoking observation. Teachers are teaching what they have learned. And for sure, some basic subjects are timeless. But we are preparing new generations. There's evolution. Technology is somehow shaping the last decade's generations and, even faster, those to come. How can teachers from yesterday teach today's generations and tomorrow's, with so many different new challenges? And what's an education plan when information/education is available at a fingertip? Is education running behind and following trends instead of driving future generations' skills? Is the education system obsolete? Or needs some re-invention? Just food for thought.

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