After a recent email conversation with my good friend Andrew Curran Wesleyan university professor and in my view, and educational mastermind, I wanted to share with you his thoughts on the future of education. There has been many a complaint leveled by educational professionals at the way in which many are now being home-schooled in something of a retaliation to the old way of learning, and education is a very hot topic of debate right now. Andrew has been working in education for over 20 years and he still believes that the traditional way of educating people is the right way, albeit with some modernization.
The Benefits of Tradition
The first thing that Andrew notes is that education has been in place for centuries and that during this time there have been all kinds of modifications and modern situations to which it has had to adapt, and it always has. It is therefore Andrew’s belief that the traditional model of education can and will persevere, as long as it continues to adapt to the new world order of a digital world.
Prepare For The Future
Andrew is very strong in his belief that a school system is the best way to not only teach young people knowledge, but also to teach young students about the world, and how to grow in character. The complaint that is often leveled at education is that it doesn’t teach practical things such as how to file tax returns, how to set up a business or how to deal with a lawsuit, this level of adaptation is however something that Andrew agrees with. He tells me that the onus is well and truly on the traditional forms of education to teach young students about practical skills as well as sharing knowledge with them.
Social Skills
Andrew is not convinced that social media and the digital age makes us better people in society and that whilst we can converse more openly, he still believes that the traditional school system is the best way to teach the kids how to act on a social level. He speaks specifically about the home schooling situation, and admits that when this happens, it can be difficult for kids to interact. A prime example of this would be my friendship with Andrew that started back in Connecticut when we were in school. Because we both studied the same subjects, we would regularly travel between New Haven and Hartford to do home work together, as Andrew reminds me, this couldn’t happen if we were both being home schooled, in fact we would never have met.
Importance of the Debate
Whilst Andrew does prefer a traditional school system, he does concede that these debates are vitally important so that the education system is forced to adapt to new ways off working. Debates are always healthy and through them we can improve together.
Do you agree with Andrew’s standpoint? Let us know in the comments.