Education in the 21st century

In an era of change, education must adapt to the new challenges facing society.

It is often said that, if we want a positive future that addresses the great challenges of humanity (and even more so in the circumstances we are living in), one of the foundations on which to build is education. We must speak of EDUCATION in capital letters. Most experts in this field agree that current education, as it stands, does not offer solutions to the great challenges of the present century. We continue to educate with many approaches of the 19th and early 20th centuries, today totally outdated.Today, they are totally outdated.

It is not only the issue of school failure, but it is increasingly evident that our children and young people are bored at school; as it was said not long ago, they consider it to be "a brown". This should force us, society as a whole, to seek the necessary formulas to prevent this from happening and to take it as something normal. The 21st century is a period of challenges, transformations and profound changes..

Adapting education to the 21st century

In short, we are in a change of era, and when that happens there is a kind of Big Bang in which all structures, systems, organizations. all structures, systems, organizations... seem to blow up until everything returns to a relative stability.. Therefore, education cannot remain oblivious to this social revolution that is taking place. In this sense, perhaps some bases of an educational system could be the following.

Holistic education

For many years we have focused on preparing future generations in subjects related to the world of technology in every sense of the word. It was a preparation for the world of work.. However, the academic structures do not fully understand and adapt to the changes that have taken place in recent decades.

On the other hand, for some years now we have been talking about the fact that along with this excess of technology, there is a total lack of emotional learning. a total lack of emotional learningMany educational professionals even speak of emotional and sentimental illiteracy. In present and future education, these aspects are necessary and essential to prepare generations that understand the world around them and the society they are part of.

Without losing sight of the need to learn and know the great teachings of life: literature, language, history, mathematics, physics, chemistry... it is necessary that they go to school and learn to understand the world around them and the society of which they are a part. opening gaps to new realities.

A minimum knowledge of basic economics, how to work in cooperation (I like this term better than teamwork), mastery and control of one's own and other people's emotions, learning to debate, expression and communication... new techniques that are necessary to face our new society with guarantees. And to do so in a way that they are not subjects as such, that are not part of the curriculum, that are not designed to pass an exam, but are developed through the logic of experimentation and play, leaving students to find their own paths. I believe that by promoting the execution of this new learning, more resources will be found to address the usual ones.

Authorities, schools, parents...

We do not see the necessary steps being taken in the direction of removing education from the political debate. We cannot wait for a brilliant idea from the government of the day with its Star Educational Program that is going to change many things.

We have to create ambitious, long-term projects (perhaps 15 years ahead). (perhaps 15 years in the future), we must invest R+D+i in Education, collaborating and listening to all the parties involved in the subject. Investment in education is always profitable, and if not we can remember the phrase of the Swedish writer Derek Curtis: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance".

In this sensitive issue parents, who seem to have relinquished an essential part of their responsibility: to choose the kind of education they want for their children.They seem to have abdicated an essential part of their responsibility: to choose the kind of education they want for their children and to be involved in it. In education there should be no ideology, we are preparing the present and the future of our society; if we want a more just, more equitable, more real society, we must begin to achieve these issues at school.

And parents must understand and make a great effort to assume that the first education begins at homeThe behavior and actions they carry out are the best example and motivation they will give to their descendants. Or the opposite.

It is also very necessary that educational professionals make their voices heard once and for all; they are the ones on the front line, the ones who know what is going on in the classrooms, the ones who know better than anyone else what the current deficiencies are. They will probably have to make an extra effort in the various types of updates they have to make, but a large part of the success or failure of everything is in their hands.

Perhaps it is time to allow schools themselves greater freedom to differentiate themselves in their educational values and not try to do everything in such a standardized way. Excellence must be sought, and this can only be achieved through effort, imagination and differentiation. This is an issue that involves all levels of society, because an authentically trained and educated society will be a freer society with a brighter future.

Perhaps the best way to understand the importance of education is with a phrase from John Dewey:

"Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself."