Education in the 21st century

It is often said that, if we want a positive future that addresses the great challenges of humanity (and more so with the circumstances we are experiencing), one of the bases on which to rely is education. We must speak of EDUCATION in capital letters. Most experts in this field agree that current education, as it stands, does not offer solutions to the great challenges of the present century. Education continues with many approaches from S. XIX and early S. XX, today totally out of date.

It is not only the issue of school failure, it is that it is increasingly evident that our children and young people are bored at school; as it was said not long ago, they consider it "a brown". This should force us, society as a whole, to look for the necessary formulas to prevent this from happening and to be taken as normal. The 21st century is a period of challenges, transformations and profound changes.

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Adapting education to the 21st century

In short, we are in a change of era, and when that happens there is a kind of Big Bang in which all structures, systems, organizations... seem to jump through the air until everything returns to relative stability. Therefore, education cannot remain oblivious to this social revolution that is taking place. In this sense, perhaps some bases of an educational system could be the following.

Holistic education

For many years we have focused on preparing future generations in matters related to the world of technology in every sense of the word. It was a preparation for the world of work. However, academic structures do not fully understand and adapt to the changes that have occurred in recent decades.

On the other hand, it has been talking for a few years that together with this excess of technology, there is a total lack of emotional learning; many educational professionals even speak of emotional and sentimental illiteracy. In present and future education, these aspects are necessary and essential to prepare generations that understand the world that surrounds them and the society of which they are part.

Without losing sight of the need to learn and know the great teachings of life: literature, language, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry... it is necessary that they leave opening gaps to new realities.

A minimum knowledge of basic economics, the way of working in cooperation (I like this definition better, in place of teamwork), mastery and control of one's own and others' emotions, learning to debate, expression and communication... new techniques that are necessary to confront our new society with guarantees. And do it in a way that they are not subjects as such, that are not part of the curriculum, that are not designed to pass an exam, rather, they develop through the logics of experimentation and play, leaving students to find their own roads. I believe that by enhancing these new learnings in their execution, more resources will be found to address the usual ones.

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Authorities, schools, parents ...

It is not seen that the necessary steps are being taken in the direction of removing education from the political debate. We cannot be waiting for a great idea from the Government of the moment with its Star Educational Program that is going to change many things.

We must create ambitious, long-term projects (perhaps 15 years from now) we must invest R + D + i in Education, collaborating and listening to all the parties involved in the matter. Investing in Education is always profitable, and if we cannot remember the phrase of the Swedish writer Derek Curtis: "If you think that education is expensive, try ignorance."

On this delicate subject fathers and mothers are especially important, as they seem to have renounced an essential part of their responsibility: choose the type of education they want for their children and get involved in it. In education there should be no ideology, we are preparing the present and the future of our society; If we want a more just, more equitable, more real society, we must start by achieving these issues at school.

And parents should understand and try very hard to assume that the first education is born at home, with the behaviors and actions they carry out, which are the best example and motivation they will give their descendants. Or the opposite.

It is also very necessary that educational professionals make their voices heard once and for all; they are the ones in the front line, the ones who know what is going on in the classroom, the ones who know better than anyone what the current deficiencies are. They may have to go the extra mile on various types of upgrades they need to make, but much of the success or failure of it all passes through their hands.

Perhaps it is time to give the schools themselves greater freedom to differentiate themselves in their educational values ​​and not pretend to do everything in such a standardized way. You have to look for excellence, and this is only achieved through effort, imagination and differentiation. It is an issue that involves all levels of society, because a genuinely formed and educated society will be a freer society with a greater future.

Perhaps the best way to understand the importance of education is with a phrase from John Dewey:

"Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself."