Schools do not prepare our youth for a challenging world, it destroys them
Schools’ Limitations in Preparing Youth for a Changing World and Managing Complex Challenges:
Here are our western schools’ limitations in adequately preparing youth for a changing world and managing complex challenges. Worse, schools too often destroy the basic creativity and magic of our children.
Psychological Factors:
a) Outdated Approaches to Learning: Many schools employ traditional teaching methods that prioritize memorization and regurgitation, neglecting/killing the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. This undermines students’ ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world, where innovative thinking and adaptability are paramount. Contentwise too, schools and universities still teach things that are part of the problem ! Competition, extraction, instead of collaboration and regeneration. This is MADNESS.
b) Standardized Testing and Performance Pressure: Excessive reliance on standardized tests places undue pressure on students, promoting a “one-size-(mis-)fits-all” approach to education. This emphasis on test performance can hinder students’ psychological well-being, increase anxiety levels, and limit their capacity to handle complex challenges effectively. A child is made to, engineered to learn by playing. How can teachers still be surprized that their kids are unettantive in class, where they have to stay seated for 8 hours ? Teachers are acomplice of that behaviour, as it is “easier to control”.
c) Insufficient Focus on Emotional Intelligence: encompassing self-awareness, empathy, and relationship-building skills, is crucial for navigating interpersonal relationships and managing complex challenges. However, schools often overlook the teaching of emotional intelligence, leaving students ill-prepared to handle the dynamics of a changing world. Basic functioning of the human body, dealing with stress, basic keys to empowerment are not brought in classes. Sometimes, luckily, kids are “saved” by a teacher with heart and common sense — when they are lucky.
d) Lack of “Human” Literacy: schools too often turn youngsters into “obedient workers”, fitting in the“system”. That system has proven unable to deal with historical complex challenges, on all fronts (massive destruction of environment, massive discouragement of people, emotional and mental distress and chronicle diseases; massive economic checkmate facing the most expensive challenges in history). We need more creative entrepreneurs than obedient soldiers. Schools are killing it within the egg. Teach about anti-manipulation (autonomy), sustainable health on all levels, behavioural psychology, and anything really useful. This is need-to-have, scienticically proven pieces. Theoretical content being a commodity.
Economic Factors:
a) Mismatched Skills and Job Market: Rapid technological advancements and shifting economic landscapes create a demand for new skills and competencies. Traditional educational systems struggle to keep pace with these changes, leading to a gap between the skills students acquire and the evolving requirements of the job market. This mismatch hinder their ability to find suitable employment and contribute effectively to a changing economy. The mismatch gap opened up since 3 decades. In western world, idleness, collective hypnotism of marketing, addictiveness of social media, finishes off autonomy and creativity. Employers face totally new challenges : candidates not showing up, judging their ESG behaviour, no endurance, no long term vision. Probably the price of decades of non-respectful treatment of “payroll”… Schools are totally disconnected to those challenges of employers.
b) Lack of Entrepreneurial Education: Entrepreneurial innovation drives economic growth and job creation. However, many schools focus primarily on academic subjects and neglect entrepreneurship education. This omission deprives students of the necessary knowledge and mindset to take risks, think creatively, and seize opportunities in an ever-changing economic landscape. Worse, schools often kill initiative, spontaneous creativity, and cultuvate fear facing authority.
c) Lack of Financial Literacy: Financial literacy is a vital skill, enabling individuals to make sound financial decisions and effectively manage their resources. Unfortunately, schools often leave students ill-equipped to navigate complex financial challenges such as budgeting, debt management, and investment decisions.
And worse, whenever inspired people or entrepreneurs try to implement “new” approaches, they are discouraged, underfinanced, mocked.
But there is a some news. Some areas where school has not galvanized society yet, like in developing countries or war zones, people are getting organized in very new ways :
- Action learning, experiential learning: challenge groups into challenges where they have to research, go out, meet, share, test, validate, with an excitement to it which will recognoze all for their input. Make it fun. Otherwise they will not get in gear to act together, in collaborative ways, and stay very individualistic.
- Revealing and bringing unique, multiple value of each one, individual empowerment: each person has unique talents and affinities. From day one, space should be opened to get those expressed and recognized positively, non judgemental, open and fun. On a continuous and coherent path. If not, it will kill for ever that unique magic.
- Co-creative innovation: one step further, trust their creativity, and challnge them on “apparent impossible challenges”. Get them to be hyper-creative and stay open… You may encounter veeeeery surprizing business cases. If not, stagnating = regressing.
- Prepare to share, peer-to-peer education: get the students into an intention of sharing their future talent and knowledge. It is empowering by design. If not, they will stay individualistic.
- Search for the best, and improve: do not re-invent the wheel, open up curiosity of kids on what exists, even under the radar, of solutions that helps the challenge of the day. We are not alone, billions of us search for a better future, worldwide. If not,n they will waste their time and miss opportunities to improve.
- Reverse classroom: get the theory out there before, in ergonomic ways (video, quizz,…), and use the privilege of being together to play & learn.
- Multiple talent activation: each one has several passions. Get them to name them, to deepen them, and to combine them into absolutely unique personal DNA. If not, they will stay underempowered.
- Sport and arts: practise them in parallel with learning. That stimulates the multiple intelligences of each one. If not, they will stay underempowered.
- Blended education: combine school and an (interesting) part time job with mentors. If not, they will have no clue about what they really want, facinf reality check of professional life.
So now, what can you do to help this to shift ? We have articulated the virtuous keys into the DNA of all our programs, which explains their outperformance.
Join us, and let’s build and regenerate.
Prof Michel A. de Kemmeter
