Twitteretter

I’ve read a lot over the years. I’m always reading at least a book, often several in parallel. As a result, I know a lot of facts and have been exposed to many opinions and thoughts. I speak several languages. I don’t rely on technology for arithmetic, as my body comes crowned, factory settings, by a computer for this purpose, which needs using to develop full powers. In the past, all these would have been significant advantages, in the workplace, in travelling, in conversation, in writing. But today, anyone equipped with the right technology can not only compete with my capabilities, but downright demolish them. These are the early days of technology enhanced humans. Does this mean my efforts and education are wasted? This remains to be seen, but I think not. I think abilities and capacities are still important, not so much in the result, replaceable nowadays, but in the process, which shapes the mind, giving you tools to take better advantage of the technology enhancements on offer L...

I have a very apologetic piano learner at home at present. Truth is, she is pretty good, just rusty after years of oblivion following a long time spent at the Kaunas Conservatory in the somewhat distant past. I find the apologies unnecessary, and certainly less warranted than when, a few years ago, I had an unapologetic drums learner at home. Granted, the learning is not always tuneful or harmonious, in fact, it probably is not most of the time right now. We all like to witness accomplished performance, but we are typically not aware of the painstaking, long drawn process leading to it. For me, the process is as interesting, as fascinating, as the performance. The latter cannot exist without the former. Understanding how the performance is achieved, reached, adds to the experience of witnessing it. That is often missing from spectating and it can easily lead to the wrong conclusion, to the myth of talent over work. The very talented would often tell you their talent is built, not given...

Curiosity and passion are historically interesting. At many times in history, probably most, they could bring about strepitous downfall. But today, in most walks of life, they are the key to not only success, but also happiness. At a time when information, data and calculation abilities are no longer advantages, and when things change so quickly that our capacity to adapt is continuously challenged, the most important assets education can give young people are passion and curiosity. The passion and curiosity which will drive them through an uncertain, rapidly evolving environment in which jobs for life and single field careers are but a distant memory and in which those able to take advantage of the inherent system’s flexibility will flourish, whilst others will flounder. Gone is the time to teach information and exercise memory, replaced with a time for rapid experimentation and ultimate adaptation. This can be terrifying or incredibly exciting, depending on the tools in your toolbox ...

There is a famous sentence in the Spanish language: ‘Cualquier tiempo pasado fue mejor’. It translates to ‘Any time past was better’. It is the end of a poem by Jorge Manrique, a XV century stalwart of Spanish literature. It makes me think of how we navigate life, always looking backwards, how we seek guidance from the past when making decisions about the future. I often advise my son on the basis of my experience of when I was his age, a different World, a different time. It is hard not to teach our children to live in a World that no longer exists, but it is critical that we do not do so. We must look forward, use foresight and prediction rather than memory. Values and attitudes are atemporal, applicable to their future in the same way as in our past, but specific actions and practical decisions only make sense in their temporal context. Our experience should be shared, but taking great care that we extricate what no longer applies, the obsolete, to preserve the value of what remains...

We live in a knowledge economy. This means that knowledge, know how, technology, are the way for individuals and organisations to establish competitive advantage. Some call it knowledge capitalism. The moniker is apt, more so than most using it realise, because there is another aspect, which we often ignore, but also determines outcomes. Talking last night to the parents of a couple of teenagers who have just joined the private school system from state school, a message was clear. Private school confers you a huge advantage, not in the quality of content taught, where public colleges may be adequately competing, not even on the facilities offered to students, superior in private institutions, but not so critical to outcomes, but mainly in the culture of achievement and aspiration that private institutions surround students with and in the exceptional networks of future useful contacts they help them develop. Parents pay deer for these advantages, but the return on investment is high...

Yesterday’s Twitteretter stated that democracy is not the rule of the majority, but much more than that. It also stated that many citizens nowadays do not appreciate this, and make exactly that simplification. The worrying question, for me, is how can this be possible? How can it be that citizens that have lived in democracies for, in some cases, such as UK, a couple of centuries, fail to understand the basis of the political system they live in? The answer is lack of political education. Our education system devotes much more effort to creating individuals effective in the workplace than to creating individuals effective in society. It is all about the economy, it is all about productivity, it is all about wealth creation. Somehow, we build citizens who are much better at creating wealth than at deciding how it must be shared in society. This is a fortunate combination for those intent on keeping the lion share of it. It is high time that we teach citizens to truly take back control...

I’ve lately been thinking about the real purpose of education. Our society seems to see it as a way of imparting knowledge, received wisdom, and preparing learners for a useful professional life. This manifests in teachings of what the World is, how it works, imparting a World view which is presented as a fixed reality, with its concepts and limitations, with its constraints. We educate people to accept reality. But the World is possibilities, not reality. It can be approached not as a given, but as a canvas on which to leave one’s imprint, a piece of clay to try to sculpt, to match reality to our imagination. Education should give us the tools for such approach, the critical spirit to not accept what is given, the ambition and creativity to want to improve it, incrementally, or change it, radically. Life will have plenty of time to knock us into shape, to coerce us to accept status quo and reality. But education should demand of us the will to take on the World, and equip us to do it...

It is possible of late to draw many parallels between the conduct of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. They are both sketchy in the detail of policies they propose, giving the impression that these have been thought out and developed by someone else, they both show not only no compunction when lying, but practically a pathological need to do so, they both seem happy to go back on recently made commitments and ignore agreements built after strenuous and often precarious negotiations. They seem, in fact, determined to become rogue operators in the international order. What is striking is to realise that they have arrived at this common point by following such different paths and, particularly, different educations. Trump is as proudly ignorant of history and the classics as Boris is enthused, enthralled even, by them, modelling himself on them. This makes not an iota of difference. All that elitist, classical education is wasted in what matters most, which is the behaviour it informs  ...

Education is critically important to the success of society and the wellbeing of its citizens, its ultimate purpose. One concern I have of late is that education, following the Anglo Saxon model, is becoming too utilitarian. Educational institutions promote themselves as educating to cover employers’ needs, preparing pupils for the job market. This, I fear, is a mistake. Education needs to be more, it must develop learning, reasoning and criticising skills and a wide range of concerns and understanding. Firstly, because job market needs are not fixed and, therefore, educating for today is doomed to future failure. But more importantly, because efficacy without the right purpose is dangerous. Our brightest, most educated young people focus their efforts on creating wealth shifting complex financial products or strategies to keep kids glued to their screens longer, rather than on solving major social challenges like climate change, infectious disease, antibiotic resistance or inequality ...