Over – and over – I’ve been told: Get good grades. Learn! Then you will be successful.
My parents… My teachers… My friends… Even my dog!
They all said the same thing: GET GOOD GRADES for success in life.
The funny thing is – I’ve found that assumption to be false. A fable. A lie!
Let me explain:
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Students all over the world feel like failures – not because:
• They don’t put in the effort – or because
• They don’t have the brain to understand – or because
• They couldn’t care less about their future
No! Students feel like failures because they are being dictated by a schooling system that makes “good grades” the beginning and end of life.
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And too often – this means literally the end of a life…………..
A life that was full of:
• Potential
• Energy
• Dreams and
• Success
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Albert Einstein once said: “Everybody’s a genius”
And he then said: “But if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
Ladies and gentlemen – today I put modern day schooling on trial – and I will prove that:
Not only does the schooling system make fish climb trees, but also makes them climb down and make them do a 10-kilometre run.
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What am I talking about?
Let’s look at the trusty smart phone. We all have one these days.
It is more than a phone…
It is:
• A GPS
• A library full of information (we call it Google!)
• A coffee shop where you chat with your friends (Facebook / Instagram)
• A full computer
And yet – it fits in your pocket!
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Compare the smartphone with a phone from 100 years ago.
Big difference, right?
We can do the same with cars. Comparing today’s cars with cars from a 100 years ago is almost incomprehensible!
Today – we are testing driverless cars that is powered by electricity.
100 years ago, many towns did not even have electricity – left alone cars!
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But when we look at the schooling system – it has been the same for the last 100 years.
You still need to learn for exams in subjects:
• That you have no interest in – or
• That won’t help you in your future career – or
• That is even relevant in a modern society
It just brings stress, pressure and frustration.
Ladies and Gentlemen – One plus One doesn’t equal Two anymore!
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In literally over a century, nothing has changed.
Yet we claim to prepare students for the future.
But with evidence like that I must ask:
• Do we prepare students for the future or the past?
Am I talking about teaching people the basic rights to read, write and calculate?
Absolutely not.
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Illiteracy and the percentage of populations without any schooling have decreased in the past several decades.
For example, the percentage of population without any schooling decreased from 36% in 1960 to 25% in 2000.
And that is great news.
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But we have turned these basic rights into concentration camps of performance.
Students need to sit in straight rows nice and neat.
Raise your hand if you want to speak. Don’t be spontaneous.
Then give students a short break to eat
And for eight hours a day tell them what to think.
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And worst of all – let them compete to get an ‘A’
Let those who get excellence in the schooling system feel good… … for a moment
And let those who don’t develop a complex of failure… … for life!
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Let me rest my case by saying that today we don’t need to make robot zombies.
The world has progressed, technology has progressed.
And now we need people who:
• Think creatively
• Do innovatively
• Live interdependently
• Have the ability to connect
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Every scientist will tell you no two brains are the same.
Every parent will tell you that no two children are identical.
And yet – we treat our students like cookie cutter frames.
Imagine a doctor prescribed the exact same medicine to all his patients
The results would be tragic.
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Many very successful people today were failures at school
Let’s not have a schooling system that:
• Puts pressure on us to perform
• Insults us if we don’t live up to its outdated standards
• Makes us believe we are not good enough –
Simply because we did not get ‘good grades’
