The misunderstood, misinterpreted and misconstrued missing link of education.

In the realm of monopolistic education lobby!

The education system which taught us “c for cat” when we were kid and thanks to animal planet which taught us reproduction affair of cat community large or small when one was grown enough to grasp it and teaching nothing in between about the subject, what else has been real contribution of supposedly highly evolved, thoughtfully articulated education system towards educating masses about numerous such small elements of life, environment and beyond as in example? Where is the missing link, do we even feel that there is some missing link, do we even feel that we needed to learn more about subject for example or are we already numb? One might not be thoroughly updated on latest content or programs of curriculum but essentially that’s all most of us will be able to recollect about such subjects through that long guided journey of education. Rest what we learned about subject was either from Tom & Jerry cartoon series or Catwoman from Hollywood, i.e., TV & Movie, both of which has been declared profane or useless by education system when it come to their jurisdiction, we haven’t even talked about internet yet, which is the actual missing link!  

Does this system of education, either imposed directly through curated structure or implied indirectly through cultivated social wisdom has right to set boundaries of education, or does it has right to dictate handful of acceptable credible streams of knowledge, does it has right to limit student’s optimum exposure towards any particular subject?

In this highly evolved world of technology which is constantly in progressive flux, it’s apt and high time for education system to realize its unprecedented role and grave responsibility towards shaping individuals, nations, world and future civilization at large. Things are different than decade ago, so has to be the thinking and approach. System has to cope up with the flux where by the time syllabus is framed the subject content becomes obsolete, in a world where by the time bestseller books are being edited, subjects discussed in book become outdated on internet discussion forums. Education system has to rebuild its structure, with stable core of moral principles and with dynamic mutating envelop which constantly mimic the societal and technological changes.  

Yes Internet and everything tech has to be introduced at the earliest ladder of education. How we filter the content is education system’s burden not kid’s. But just because they are unable to filter the bad content of internet they can’t simply deprive the bright young kids from whole potential and knowledge of internet which they would have used otherwise to understand the subject. Why it is that a students still have to resort to a tiny textbook to know about a cat for example when even an elementary or secondary students can have access to information about cat at their desk in as much detail and depth as a PHD student can enjoy. Majority of which content might appear to be useless for that kid, but that cannot be an excuse not to give him access to whole depth of knowledge, you never know one of them choose to go deeper picking up fast, ending up making millions of dollars by the age 13 writing blog about cats. Go to retire@21 website and you will find numerous such examples.

It’s true from all across schools to colleges. Does existing education system hesitate to reinvent itself in this fear that what if students become more knowledgeable than educators, what if laced with constant stream of information students ask smarter questions than ever which they might find difficult to answer. Meanwhile producing millions of mediocre tools seems to be an easy escape for education system. 

Whether they will allow them that exposure or not kids will still learn on their own when they will have access to internet after some idiosyncratic prescribed age limit, but the only fear is that by then their most productive learning age period will be over. It’s time to ponder and rethink Education!

By - Anoop Jha