Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin

From birth, a person’s brain and behavior are designed to constantly learn and grow. Young people follow this learning process with incredible effectiveness and efficiency and it seems that these individuals even enjoy it. Now compare this behavior and mindset with individuals who have been in the game of the designed framework of education for quite some time. It is startling how great the difference in observations can be between these two categories.

Millions of children don’t know what they should go to school for, except out of a sense of duty. So where is the tipping point between “hunger for knowledge” and “I’ve had enough of school”? For me personally, this is a difficult question to answer and probably depends on a variety of factors. However, the educational model that most institutions operate is clearly a dinosaur.

Today, almost any knowledge can be easily accessed from any location, at any time of day, and at minimal cost. This has made the reason for going to school (especially colleges) much more questionable. It is a system invented by our ancestors and designed and conceived for a different age. Today’s educational system was established in the intellectual culture of the Enlightenment and in the economic conditions of the Industrial Revolution. The intellectual model of the mind said that true intelligence consisted in the ability to think deductively and in knowledge of the classics, that is, in what we now call academic skills.

We have become accustomed to dividing people into academics and non-academics, into intelligent and non-intelligent people. As a result, people think you’re not brilliant because you don’t have a degree, or even worse - many brilliant people think they’re not. In my opinion, this is one of the causes of the world we have created, where appearance has a higher price than actual material value. Therefore, as a society, we face a remarkable vulnerability.

This leads me to conclude that the teaching profession and the education system in general simply need to adapt to the new circumstances and changing role. A role that requires a transition from “Curriculum Deliverer” to a “Learning Coach”.

The new function of the teaching profession is to nurture the natural passion and genius of the student, rather than acting as a protector of knowledge and forcing students down a prefabricated path built for the masses. Students need to be encouraged to question the knowledge and methods taught by teachers and, as individuals and collectively, to arrive at new innovative understandings.

I realize that lots of teachers already see themselves in this particular new role. But many of these teachers I have spoken with explain that they are unable to fulfill this role, not because they don’t want to, but because the system in which they work is outdated, obsolete, and limiting them on many levels.

Where do these limitations come from and who is responsible for making change more difficult? It is quite possible that there is a logical connection here. I therefore take the liberty of asking a provocative question. What if this system is “corrupt”, like many other industries and people?

It is fair to say that the dramatic changes in the world of work and employment mean that the foundation of a new world of education must have the values of sustainability and adaptability at its core.

We need to start imagining a concrete future and a world that we ourselves, our children, and future generations want to live in. Global connectivity, smart machines, and new and emerging media are just some of the drivers that are reshaping how we think about education and work, and how we learn and develop the skills for the work of the future.

The concept of a “100-year life” becoming the norm, where the majority of time is spent learning and working, means that learning will become much more important for the next generations. Most people will have a variety of different jobs that require basic retraining, while the pace of innovation will constantly require new skills and knowledge to keep up. So, having defined specific goals for the future, we need to work on concrete plans to achieve them, and then finally make targeted investments.

In this new social, business, and economic landscape every industry falls into one of only three groups:

Right now, your industry falls into one of the following categories:

  • a) has been disrupted
  • b) is being disrupted or
  • c) is about to be disrupted.

No industry or company will be able to escape this process (and so will education), which is simply part of the natural cycle of change. The good news is that disruption is also an opportunity. An opportunity to consciously shape the future economic and social landscape we want to see. So let’s take responsibility and follow through with action!