On Education:
“Deschooling Society” by Ivan Illich challenged all our thinking on education. He called what we have “Inducation”.
He is not wrong. All peoples induct their new generations into their ien beliefs, knowledge and skills.
Confucius emphasise obedience, humility and reverence of authority. Modern industrial capitalist society trained people to be good workers, skillful and compliant.
As we enter into the age of AI, how should we educate people? Since knowledge is just a click away isnt the question that is more important?
This is a new problem. From the past we taught what we know to the new generations. We tended to brush off their questions. Today AI has all the answers. It is the question that is important.
The issue is what is a good question and how to ask it. How can i fly like a bird is a stupid question. How and why do birds fly get useful answers.
Ivan Illich in 1960 suggested self-directed learning. I designed Mechai’s Bamboo School in Thailand in 2010. It turned the poorest children into the smartest. No exams. Teachers support students’ self-directed learning projects with maths, history, science etc.
The word Education is derived from the latin “educere” which means to bring out from. This is what education should really mean!
A group of ex-principals and teachers met to implement my “Super School Concept” presented in IPS in 2015 got rebuffed by MOE for being “presumptuous”. This is power politics at work!
Still, times have reached a point where the old ways have to change to new ways. AI and robotics are going to shed many jobs. What are we to do? We have to prepare to do humanised jobs less suited for machines. Jobs like mentoring, nursing, making art, acting, adventuring, becoming good chefs etc become important.
This is where Howard Gardner’s concept of “Multiple Intelligences” becomes important. These are developed not by book learning but by experiential learning.
Changing education is a long and difficult task. Like what Mechai did in Thailand, he led by example. To really involve people, govt should relax its monopoly and allow a few experimental schools.
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