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Lessons From the Future



In an ideal world, how do you think education should be organised?
What priorities do you think it should reflect? and who should be responsible for ensuring that it is of a good quality?

In an ideal world, all members of any given society should be familiar with the metanarrative(s) that structure their world. We are going through the fourth industrial revolution and the technological force that fuels its unfolding is changing and challenging our ideas of who we are and where we are going. The global village is a reality and we should have the tools to overcome the adolescence of our species.   William Gibson once said, “The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.” I feel a laudable purpose of education would be to prepare people to be active members of a global community whose main purpose is to improve the well being of all while exploring the ever-expanding universe.  It is very interesting to notice how organizations such as the World Economic Forum call for an emphasis on mostly soft skills as the foundations of our operating system for the 21st Century.  I think they are pointing on the right direction and their suggestions actually goes hand in hand with the Agenda 2030 from the United Nations. Governments should do a better job at informing their societies about the changes we are going through and the necessity to change our myopic views and come to a general agreement about where we want to go and what we have to do to get there.




1. How has your experience of school shaped you as a learner, and as an adult?

2. In what ways do you think your own schooling could have been improved, and what priorities do you think are the most important for schools today?

I think my experience at school came short when it comes to delivering a sense of community and historical awareness. Most of the learning I consider meaningful was incidental. Basically, school unintentionally provided a physical space where I could get together with other people my age and learn by imitation how to perform the social roles expected in the socioeconomic context I was born into.  There was no sense of transcendence whatsoever. In regards to formal academic input per se, I was exposed to what somebody for reasons unknown to me had deemed relevant.  Learning fuelled by curiosity did not find a friendly niche at school.  Education was analogous to complying to a set of rules and repeating information on command.

I feel my schooling could have been more meaningful had it shown me the relevance of being an active member in my community. It should have shown me how align my abilities and interests with a social project. I was never explicitly taught soft skills which I consider to be the foundation of a vibrant and healthy society. Luckily, I joined the boy scouts when I was seven years old. That experience kept me on the right track since the ethos that structures the institution points towards helping children become a positive force in the community they are part of and the world at large.  Even though I am not part of the Boy Scouts anymore, I can safely say that they planted good seeds and helped me become the kind of person I am today.


In regards to formal education, it is my belief that schools should make sure students understand the historical development of humanity and see society as an organism of sorts that can be intentionally improved for the betterment of all. This, I feel, would provide students with agency, sense of belonging, and purpose. Students should comprehend that we have no ultimate answers and that, with the means and scientific understanding we have at hand, we are doing our best to come up with a narrative that helps us navigate space and time as our imagination unfolds.  



My father has always been a role model to me.  He’s a hardworking man who does what is right. Even though he barely finished high school, he took his learning in his own hands. There were always books at home. He would dive into them and looked almost mesmerized. I decided I needed to know the fountain he would often visit. 

Becoming an avid reader totally changed my life. It literally prevented me from going rogue.  We used to live in a rough neighborhood in Bogotá. Many of the kids I grew up with ended up dead, in jail, or addicted to drugs. My dad knew it was not the best environment to raise his kids, but it was the only place we could afford. This situation didn't turn him bitter. Actually, he was the first stoic I met. He never complains about what fortune brings and takes away. Nietzsche’s amor fati (love your destiny) has been his motto. He usually says he feels grateful for having the opportunity of experiencing life with its ups and downs. Most of the lessons I have learned from him were never intended as lessons to begin with. When I was a child, I would just observe the way he reacted to different challenges in life.  That was how I learned to accept the mystery we are part of and live a virtuous life.

Another teacher that comes to my mind is my third grade philosophy teacher, Aurora Esguerra.  I fell in love with philosophy because of her.  She provided me with tools to assess different discourses and taught me not take anything at face value.  We would have conversations during recess and was the first adult to tell me that my making impersonations of other teachers was not something to be punished for.  She told me that humor is one of the best tools against grandiosity and that we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously.  She never patronized me; if fact, she would listen to me attentively and point at flaws in my arguments and wait patiently for my response.  She was the first teacher in secondary school with some sense of humanity. We were not just her students; we were members of a community of practice where empathy, respect, and tolerance were at the core.

Monkey see Monkey do




These are the questions and answers for Week 2:


1. During your own education, how has your "intelligence" been assessed?

The approach I have been more exposed to/subjected is quantitative assessment.  Basically, you are exposed to some input that, in most cases, you are supposed to either memorize to then paraphrase in a test when it comes to an academic subject, or just perform the desired behavior if it is an observable skill.  In the former, feedback and/or ongoing assessment are usually absent. In the latter, even though sometimes there is immediate feedback, the stress is put in the result and not the process.   

2. How has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?

Because of my academic success, I was able to access what people traditionally call a good public secondary school and a good public university. I learned to play the academic game as it was presented to me.

Public education, to some extent, provided me with some tools to play the job market game. I landed a good job and was able to pay for a Master’s at a private university. Just like in any other country, a lot of people still believe that getting a diploma from a renowned private university means you have been properly educated. I know I did.

Currently, I feel technology has democratized education. We get to learn whatever it is we want to learn online, in most cases, for free.  The question now in not that you don’t have access to education, but how to use your time to turn your life project into a reality by means of turning learning into action and vice versa.


3. What judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment of your "intelligence"?

I was explicitly/implicitly taught that good grades meant intelligence. People would tell my parents that I was intelligent because I did well at school. My parents would proudly nod. I felt then the responsibility a.k.a. pressure of studying hard to get good grades. That was the name of the game. I kept doing well while my passion for learning faded silently. I was told I was “intelligent” and I believed it. People would say that I had been born with a “gift”, that I had a lucky academic star, an Aristotelian intelligent essence of sorts. It never occurred to them that my academic success was the product of my passion for learning.  


4. Do you consider yourself to be a "learner"? why?

I consider myself to be a lifelong learner. It is a concept that has been around for some years now and I like it.  It means we are an ongoing process whose dynamism depends on our hunger for learning and learning how to learn. It is an empowering and humbling endeavor that allows me to navigate the oceans of uncertainty we all live in. It is a kid of self-actualization game tied to something greater than ourselves. It is your passion put to the service of the betterment of the different communities you are part of.  




Question:

Based on your experience as a learner, what do you think you will be able to get out of this course? And what ideas do you already have about the future of education?



I feel this course will provide me with a better-rounded view of the ecosystem of approaches surrounding learning. I will be able to incorporate some of the ideas shared in the lectures, readings, and forums into my own practice. I have been working as a facilitator for more than twenty years and have experienced the organic nature of the teaching/learning complex and how it is informed and shaped by contributions from different disciplines ranging from psychology to neuroscience.


In regards to the future of education, I feel the exponential rate of change we are experiencing calls for a different focus. I read a World Economic Forum report released earlier this year where after analyzing the impact of technology in the workforce, they have concluded learning institutions should provide people with adaptive skills that will help them better navigate the changing world. Interestingly enough, the emphasis is put in soft skills and metacognitive strategies.  The world is changing fast and so is our identity as species. We as educators should provide our students with tools that will help us all create a new narrative of purpose, a new chapter in the book of life. I could not be more excited.