When travelling, the subtlest of perceived differences often make the most lasting impressions; ways of doing things that would not be conceived back where you call home. Whether its a nifty way to cut a pineapple, the modification of a motorcycle into a tuk-tuk, pocket fans with attached plastic to keep the flies away from produce at the local market or how almost anything can be fashioned into a chair. When innovation turns to benefit, others see value and it quickly becomes the norm. The gradual evolution of an idea gets you from Wat Phou to Angkor Wat. Like many institutions, School and Education does not tend to have a great degree of flexibility. Apart from individual schools that have control over their curriculum and teaching methods, most schools everywhere tend to derive from a centrally controlled ethos restricting its ability to alter to any significant degree.
Education can also be seen as a long lead activity where the benefits are realized much further down the track from when any changes were implemented. This makes it harder to gain momentum for change. This does not inherently mean that there should be no innovation within it.
Don Det has a small elementary school which is of a rural standard available in Laos. Pakse is roughly 3.5 hours away and commuting that far in Laos daily is hardly realistic. For such a wonderful place in the world to be, available education options for children make it less than ideal and drives a need to innovate. I wont reflect much on Laos specifically in this one because I think its a bit more universal. I'll start with the outcome being the learner and a common archetype: the good student.
Learners
Yet there is another kind of learner, one whose knowledge is not founded in an established curriculum but rather the world they know acts as the repository from which they draw upon. The act of learning aligns with motivations that are instinctual along with more abstracted motivations ie. where the learner perceives an advantage from the acquisition of knowledge. As the knowledge is acquired in alignment with the learner's motivations and by extension the learner's character, there is nothing foreign about the material that the learner must second guess, it is pure and it is relevant.
These two learner archetypes are somewhat of a dichotomy distinguishable by the artificial or natural environments that characterize their learning. Whereas the artificial environment is palatable from a perspective of an equitable society, in experience this is rarely homogeneous. It also suffers a secondary flaw in which as it establishes itself as "the" means of education it takes upon the burden to maintain a relevant education and disincentives other forms of learning. How can a common artificial education experience deliver a relevant education in a stratified society? The answer is it cannot and it does not as eluded to before.Learners in the Internet Age
Enter the computers. They are the workhorses of the future; continuously automating more and more functions which would normally be done by people. Undertaking complex calculations beyond the capacity of any human being and rendering simulation environments and models allowing for more sophisticated engineering designs and reducing understanding of the underpinning physics. In this world, relevant knowledge and by extension relevant education is changing...fast.
As a corollary, the advent of computers engendered the greatest information source in history: the internet. Not only does it provide a plethora of text-based documents but it also display maps, models, videos and most notably interactive educational resources. The good student does not do well in this environment. It is as vast as the world at large and requires the skills of the natural learner, to guide their course of learning. Their corollary, the anti-student, does not do particularly well either, as the means of access to knowledge requires the internalization of information that the good student applies. Also, it does not produce the type of instant advantage that the anti-student perceives as reinforcement and encouragement.
I believe that a learner for the new age, where the definition of relevant knowledge is under constant turbulence, needs an education that is based more on how to learn rather than what to learn. This would be the real 'primary' education. After which module-based learning, can teach relevant content and reinforcing the primary education with vocational experience, although I would imagine much of this would be mostly self-lead within some supporting learning environments. The primary education would include language proficiency (English is a must unfortunately for the current state of the internet and computer languages), computer literacy, research principles and techniques and focus upon critical reading, understanding marketing strategies and leveraging one's own motivation and learning styles/strengths/weakness.
Professional educators focus would be less upon the curriculum and more upon establishing the conditions for the students to achieve success including seeking out other professionals that utilize the relevant information to embed the knowledge in real terms for the student. In addition, they would chart the child's areas of learning and able to propose similar lines of study (much of which could be assisted through technology).
Less Schooling
What strikes me about a system such as this is that it removes the need for many of the years of education required in contemporary systems. Schools that focus on a set curriculum as a means of achieving generic skills are taking the long route, probably influenced too strongly by historical norms and less upon contemporary educational thinking. As institutions they also suffer from a predefined time structure derived from a very real sub-function state-endorsed "day care" for children to permit working pressures of an economy in the post-industrial age. The rigidity of process and strict disciplinary requirements results in children being treated like a herd of animals and not the hope for a future and potential high contributors to society. It is a form of systematic dis-empowerment that disadvantages many and reinforces the stratification of society through their growth within the system and self-identification with class stereotypes.
In Conclusion
One of the big holes in my thinking here is the piece about gaining access to the people that are contemporaneously using the knowledge which learners aspires to learn and through this interaction grounding the experience in reality. In a way this talks to mentorship and is great practice but not so so easily achieved. What I'm talking about requires a great degree of preparation and knowledge of learning styles that I've never really acquired. But if I can practice like the anti-student I may be able to implement small elements of these in real life. Enough to make a difference and initially supplement a rural education with the purpose to keep a family together in a living unit and not hand off children to boarding institutions that simply can't provide the same level of emotional investment.
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