“You cannot give to drink a horse that is not thirsty”, a famous phrase by José Pacheco.
You don’t learn through memorization. Memorizing is not understanding, it is not questioning, it is not exploring or delving into a topic.
Historically, the traditional school was made to form legions of workers around the world during the industrial revolution. It served to teach hundreds of workers, simultaneously, to read, write and do arithmetic, so that with these bases they could be trained in the different manufacturing operations, capable of reading manuals and working in the office. But it hasn’t evolved any further. Subjects were added, and when this became excessive, more curricular years were added. The worst thing is that the material introduced over the years, in addition to the basics of reading and writing and doing arithmetic, added little social value.
Most of the learning relevant to the longest period of a person’s life, the adult phase, is learned within the scope of their profession and guaranteed by professional experience.
Everything that came from the school was useless, and that certainly many readers will understand to be true and will be able to identify with it. All of us adults go through the process and all we need to do is reflect on what we actually learned at school about what is relevant and useful to us as adults: do the square root? Remember who are all the Kings? know that water is two molecules of Hydrogen and one molecule of Oxygen? Do we find this indispensable to our well-being or social productivity? Of course not!
The future belongs to those who will be able to adapt to a world with more and more information and new technologies. New industries and professions. New opportunities and new challenges. They will have to learn to continually learn. They will go global and work anywhere and from anywhere. They will have to know how to sell and be entrepreneurial so they don’t depend on anyone or be hostage to salaries. They will have the tools that allow them to have independence and self-sufficiency without having to sacrifice their freedom.
This is the world that Open Learning proposes. End the traditional/instructional school and introduce the open learning model worldwide!
