Back To School

Recently I was taking a friend through some training on Zoom functionalities and she decided to set up a Zoom call to do a practice run. I jokingly told her to make the subject ‘back to school’.

I didn’t intend for her to do that so I found it funny when the invitation came across with that title. It got me thinking about the subject of education and the need to go back to school.

Many people have gone through formal education but how many truly have the skills needed in today’s society? Skills such as empathy, emotional intelligence, resilience, reasoning, logic are not always taught in a formal education setting.

Think for yourself

As Albert Einstein says, ‘Education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think.’ A huge part of the formal education that we know is designed around the learning of facts and in some cultures, challenging the elders or teachers is frowned upon.

As a young person, I often got involved in intellectual conversations with my dad. I remember a day when his friend, a senior Airforce person, was visiting and they got on to a subject I was interested in. My dad shared his view and I replied that it didn’t make sense or words to that effect, so he asked if I was saying he wasn’t smart.

His friend weighed in and clarified that I didn’t say he didn’t make sense but that what he said did not make sense. He went on to add that my dad needed to allow me to elaborate and I then shared my viewpoint.

That day, I learnt the power of having a voice and the importance of being amongst people who allowed you to challenge a popular view without risk or fear.

Let others think

We do a disservice to ourselves and others when we stop them from thinking and asking tough questions.

There are subject matters that will always challenge our minds and it is so easy to bamboozle people into accepting the popular view rather than accepting there are questions that we may never have the answers to.

Let the children think

Children ask questions like why the rainbow has so many colours, who is God’s mummy, how a seed got inside a fruit. Many adults who don’t have the answers and don’t want to admit to not having the answers, attempt to shut the children down.

So excuses like, ‘you talk too much’, ‘it’s past your bedtime’, ‘stop asking too many questions’ and ‘go and read your book’ are used to push the moments away.

There are many things that science still hasn’t explained and we need to accept that and own up to not having all the answers. That in itself is an education as it shows the younger generation that learning is a life long process.

That way we can make it safe to have an inquisitive world where no questions are taboos and people can learn through thinking for themselves.

Educate the heart

I love the quote from Aristotle which says, ‘Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.’

Empathy, understanding other people’s perspectives, inclusiveness, resolving conflicts, handling difficult conversations and emotional intelligence all form part of educating our hearts.

It’s that education that teaches us to be socially responsible in our societies helping us to contribute to the creation of a fairer community where every human life is equally valued.

Thanks for reading my post. I hope it encourages a commitment from you to your personal and professional growth; and helps you to challenge those who want to restrict your thought process.   

Please share this post with others and I will see you next week.