#11: Education is broken, learning and money are related, and bald eagles are back
Hello there, it’s Àlex & Marc, authors of the 3X Newsletter, home of the impact society.
We are here to inspire some of our brightest citizens to write the next chapters of our history by scaling companies or working on projects that help solve society’s biggest problems, while also living environmentally conscious lives.
Let’s dive in!
One reflection
Education is broken, here’s WHY
A brief history of education
The purpose of education has evolved over time. During the 17th century the modern education system and schooling in particular emerged in Europe mainly to create loyal citizens to the newly formed nation states. Fast forward 200 years, during the industrial revolution, the education system evolved and focused on developing productive citizens. This, at the time, meant punctual and obedient people who tolerated long and tedious repetitive work, ie. factory workers.
Where are we today?
The purpose of education today is to develop children’s physical, intellectual, social and emotional abilities so that they can thrive in a fast changing world.
It is clear that today's motive for educating is very different from the one we had on the 17th or even 19th century. Yet, if we look at schools and universities today, we can see how education has hardly changed in the last decades. Even the best MBA programs are still mostly aimed at producing “excellent sheep”.
Here are some of the key reasons why education is broken:
It does not promote independence and agency. We constantly tell students what to do instead of guiding them to discover and learn that by themselves. Almost nobody is in the business of teaching the ultimate skill: “learning how to learn”. And the current top down approach with lectures, homework and standardised tests at its core does not motivate students to take charge of their own learning, make choices, and pursue them autonomously.
It is not practical and useful for real life. Very important topics such as personal finance, nutrition, emotional wellbeing or physical health are mostly overseen.
It is not designed to enable students to discover their own talents and passions so that they can ultimately choose professional and personal paths based on those. If you ask university students, most of them are fully focused on passing exams and getting good grades, very few will tell you that one of the reasons why they are at university is to discover their calling. Even worse, most of them will not embark on their first professional experience until they have finished their degrees.
It kills curiosity instead of fostering it. (Sir Ken Robison speech couldn’t be more clear).
It is only “acceptable” for average students. Top and bottom students are at a disadvantage due to the standardisation of everything. Hopefully AI will play a crucial role here with personalised learning and tutors. There are some very exciting initiatives such as Synthesis School.
It is centred around a scarce resource: quality educators. Given the current status and pay range of education jobs, talented educators are rare to find and this is a hard problem to solve.
In a future entry we will explore in more depth what we can do about it. In the meantime, we would love to hear your thoughts on how we can change the education system for the better?
Food for Thought
Wondering about the intriguing connection between students' academic results and a country's economic well-being? Let the data ignite your reflections on how GDP per capita and educational outcomes might be intertwined.
Talent is spread out equally across the planet, yet opportunity is not.
Impact stories
Women are more ambitious than ever. Yet, their representation is not keeping pace. That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey, in partnership with LeanIn.Org.
A new scorecard ranks companies based on how strongly they align with their purpose. Not to be confused with environmental, social, and governance (ESG), which focuses on business activities rather than purpose, this high-level metric is the tentpole that companies use to define what they’re about and how they plan to achieve it.
One quote
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
~Albert Einstein
Not to give you the impression that everything out there is negative, we wanted to leave you with an inspiring story. And that is no other than the incredible comeback story of the bald eagle. Not too long ago, these majestic birds were in deep trouble. There were only about 400 pairs left in the U.S. thanks to both hunting and a nasty pesticide called DDT. Bald eagles were really hanging by a thread.
But don't we all love a good comeback? Well, the bald eagle sure does. Thanks to conservation efforts, things started looking up. People got together to protect their nesting sites, put the brakes on hunting, and banned DDT. And guess what? It worked.
Now, you'll hear stories of bald eagles setting up shop in the most unexpected places, even in the middle of big cities. It's like they're saying, 'we're back!' The best part? In 2007, the bald eagle was officially taken off the U.S. Endangered Species List meaning that they made a full recovery, and it's an incredible example of what can happen when we humans step up to protect our wild neighbours.
And, remember, this isn't just a story about eagles; it's a story of hope and resilience. It's a reminder that we can make a difference, and it's a call to action for all of us to keep these stories of nature's comeback going strong.
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