Educating for the Future.

When I studied the book “SAKETH” – by the great Hindi poet Mythili Sharan Gupta, my perceptions of Kaikeyi and Urmila changed. When I read the book “Ramchandrika”  by Keshavdas, the celebrated Hindi poet of the sixteenth century, I contextualized the story of Ramayana in an entirely different perspective- much different from how Valmiki, Tulsidas or Kamban in Tamil have articulated and presented. While the main content of the story is the same – a book can create perceptions, meanings and project a point of view much different from what is currently prevalent. Possibly, that is the strength of the human brain – to imagine, to create, to synthesize, to inquire and to question– thanks to the ‘synesthetic’ functions of the brain. It is indeed an integral part of the ‘evolution’ in its multi-dimensional aspect. Creating different perceptions is the feed for questioning and hence challenging the knowledge. “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes” says Peter Drucker. As such challenges help in diving into unfathomed oceans of knowledge to seek newer meaning for growth and development

The neuro-cognitive psychologists, have in the past few decades, studied the functions and working of the brain through innumerable experiments and some of the results are awe-inspiring. One clear message that we get through these studies is that the brain is plastic and is continuously learning. The clear message also says -  Learning cannot be caused, it can only be facilitated. Learning is perceptional and is continually modified by a number of inputs it receives – culturally, socially, emotionally and otherwise. Learning is not a linear process. No wonder, all learners are unique and their learning styles vary.

Patrick Dixon, in his book “The future of (Almost) everything” writes: “Expect rapid expansion of new learning tools, including short interactive video clips, designed to fit precisely into the curriculum.” He adds “School and college is all about preparing a new generation for a globally changing future, training people to think, giving them a broad understanding of the world, providing useful job skills. In many cases, we would be educating young people for jobs that are yet to be invented, but most education is locked into the past, training people for tasks which no longer exist.”  As knowledge evolves, the wealth of the countries will be redefined. Says Peter Drucker “In the Knowledge Society there will no poor countries, but there will be only ignorant countries. Poverty will be determined by the level of ignorance a country has.” Thus, education systems, worldwide, are left with no option but to reinvent their objectives, purposes and opt to change for being global competitors and of course, to seek global leadership at least in a few domains of knowledge.

Several of the researches done worldwide on the learning styles indicate that learning curves for each of the learners is specific and is influenced by several of the above factors. History is also a witness to the facts that for generations, political systems across the globe have tried to impact learning systems to develop a kind of polarization, however short the life of such systems have been, because the brain is continually changing, learning, evolving and re-engineering itself. Studies show how a State which subscribed to a given aroma of thought, totally rejected the same and adopted itself to an entirely different culture of thinking.

And when it comes to an education system, the formative years of learning in a school have been accepted most critical as they form the foundations for the future course of learning, thinking, socializing and governing. It is the time when global systems should nurture ‘freedom to think’ and ‘freedom to learn’ so that the learner looks at concepts, ideas, cultures and past actions in an objective manner and understands their significance, value and relevance in context.

Science has evolved by reviewing and re-evaluating many of its principles in emerging contexts, sometimes disproving the past interpretations, on a few occasions validating them and thus accepting the limitations of human knowledge. Such dis-approvals are not reflections of the lack of wisdom of the yesteryears, but it is a statement on the untiring urge of the human mind to seek the truth in the present context. Arts and humanities have evolved by their untiring attempt to reinvent themselves and seeing the universe of nature and its relationships in an entirely different evolving scenario thus celebrating the ‘freedom of thinking’ and the consequent ‘freedom to learn’. It is the demonstration of a vibrant social system dynamic enough to adopt to the continuous change.

It is important that ‘learners’ are empowered with these opportunities –‘freedom to think’ and ‘freedom to learn’. In a world that has emerged currently as a knowledge society, information and knowledge have become so fluid that they can pass through any pores of the filters applied to prevent its mobility. “Knowledge is no longer an immobile solid; it has been liquefied”, says John Dewey. Informal learning has overpowered formal learning, thanks to social media and technological interventions, the formal systems of education are finding it extremely challenging to adequately provide ‘food for thought’ in structured classrooms.

Given the limitations of the acquisition of ‘structured knowledge’ as formal indicator for learning and competency assessment through ‘examinations’ on prescribed textbooks evaluating ‘linear thinking’, it is time to re-evaluate our purpose and futuristic need to redefine the existing structures, processes, procedures and systems to be more suitable to the futuristic needs. In this process, text books are like runways in an airfield for the flights to take off. They don’t define the journey.

“Learners” should have the freedom to examine different perceptions of concepts, view different points of view, experience assorted flavors of a given idea – be it a poetry, be it a law of science or be it a liberation movement of a country. Promoting lateral thinking, analytical thinking, critical thinking and creative thinking have to be the objectives of a learning process through a spectral display of information, be it through text books or through technology.

The inter-disciplinary learning has emerged only through this synesthetic thinking – we have “Bio-medical engineering, Bio-technology, agricultural economics. Corporate law, Business ethics.” Handholding of science with spirituality – two erstwhile conflicting domains is not an antithesis to human minds anymore.

Teachers, who would be co-learners with their learning clients, would have to pilot the flight of learning and their ‘pedagogical intelligence’ would facilitate the ‘learners’ to enjoy this beautiful and purposeful journey.

The wealth of the nations, as Peter Drucker, claims will be decided in future by its knowledge and not exclusively through material resources. This realization, would go a long way for any country to put its right foot forward in making their decisions.