Concerns on formal education
Joan Ofulue
Techno-functional Delivery Leader for Data & AI at Deloitte Canada | PhD Researcher on Data Monetization | Part-time Professor
My concern about the purpose of education or rather how education is being delivered has led me to lots of conclusion. Formal education is keeping the ordinary man at a level of mediocrity. Formal education has settled at teaching old ancient theories, formulas and concepts that are very irrelevant or abstract from the real world. Education which is suppose to teach us how to think has resulted in teaching us what to think.
Great minds like John Nash, Albert Einstein, Aristotle consciously rejected this form of education. In the story of their life they refused to accept this conventional approach to education and we can testify the results of there actions.
I realize that as individuals, the society has left us with no choice than to accept what to think and how to think through various educational expectation in terms of grades and other irrelevant KPI's.
Even in recent times the success of minds like SteveJobs, Mark Zuckerburg, Aliko Dangote and a lot more further buttress my point.This leaves me with the following question;
Is education a tool for reducing or increasing class disparity?
Does formal education interfere with learning?
Does education answer the wrong question?
Shouldn't the approach to education be reviewed?
Does formal education help recognize my full potential?
How do I minimize the trade-off between formal education and ability to think?
SAP BI Specialist
7yYour cover picture supports your writing perfectly. We learn better by doing. We should move away from just saying yes to everything which is mostly what one gets from the 'formal education.' Throwing one in the midst of challenges is the best. Grades aren't a true reflection of ones ability and potential. It's why the workplace is completely different to the classroom. Not surprising. Good article Joan.
Economist
9yThose names you have mentioned are the rare cases where people who did not go the education route rose to soaring heights. We tend to focus on numbers rather than percentages. Analyzing the number of people who has succeeded as much as Aliko Dangote, Steve Jobs etc will help you realize that it's better to get educated. On the other hand people are generally doing education wrong. Education teaches skills such as critical thinking, analytical thinking, & other marketable skills that one must then apply to real life. Education goes hand in hand with learning. So while aiming for A's, it's important to explore and let the mind grow
Senior DevOps Engineer | Kubernetes, Terraform, Cloud Automation | Architecting Automated, Secure, and Scalable Cloud Infrastructures
9yGood Questions... Grades and Skills have to go hand-in-hand - this is not really seen these days... The truth is learning more can be a clever way of not applying what we already know...
Senior DevOps Engineer | Kubernetes, Terraform, Cloud Automation | Architecting Automated, Secure, and Scalable Cloud Infrastructures
9yGood points...
Techno-functional Delivery Leader for Data & AI at Deloitte Canada | PhD Researcher on Data Monetization | Part-time Professor
9yBeautiful