How we are messing things up sustainably: Using yesterday’s education for tomorrow’s world.

Because I have a family, I have come into contact with two areas quite intensively over the last 3 years. One is hospital operations and the other is education. I consider both areas to be astoundingly inefficient and see them as lucrative markets from an entrepreneurial perspective. While extreme cost savings are possible in the hospital sector while at the same time improving the product, the “modus operandi” in the education sector is simply harmful to our society. The debate surrounding Education Minister Wanka’s “digital pact” shows just how twisted this whole discussion has become.

(Reading time: 5 minutes)

Suddenly there is money, but you don’t want it

You can read here what happened and what was said in detail. In a nutshell, the plot goes like this: Education Minister Wanka launched an initiative to invest a total of EUR 5 billion in IT equipment for all 40,000 schools in Germany. For the first time, the political establishment thought this was a good idea. However, there was strong resistance from teachers and trade unions of all people.

Josef Kraus, President of the German Teachers’ Association, is quoted as saying that he does not want “laptop classes” and that schools are already digital and “don’t need any more”. And that it would be better to invest the money in school libraries and that socially disadvantaged pupils need to read a lot. Explicitly the “printed word”. In other words, ink and paper. Not only people who are well-disposed towards digitalization rubbed their eyes at so much backward-looking thinking.

Well, these people are preparing our children for the future. Read that sentence again. If you have children, it will probably send shivers down your spine too.

Open the floodgates or refuse?

If you think I’m the kind of father who lets his children do everything and has already bought them all kinds of gadgets, then you’re wrong. I may be enthusiastic about technology and optimistic, but I’m no fool. There’s enough data to show that it’s probably better not to give children up to the age of 12 unrestricted access to smartphones, iPads, etc. I’m not one of those “lock on” parents who just give their kids everything. And, that’s usually the harder way, because children then have to deal with very basic things outside. For example, that you can knock your teeth out if you overdo it or that you shouldn’t just eat all the mushrooms in the garden. As parents, this is much more time-consuming than simply giving the children a tablet. (In this respect, there is also an indirect link to the hospital system).

On the other hand, they should also learn that these electronic things exist and that these things are interesting and useful. I just remember playing “No-Man-Sky” and my second oldest son (5 years old) spent over 1.5 hours attentively searching for new resources with me.

I think it’s like with many things: do one thing and don’t do another. Keep a sense of proportion. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly what it boils down to – the further development of education with a sense of proportion.

Digital change always involves cultural change – especially in education

The current discussion completely misses the really important issues. Because basically, it doesn’t matter at the moment whether there is more broadband access, tablets or whatever. It doesn’t help if people are still teaching according to old paradigms.

The agonizing and, above all, decisive question is not whether tablets should be purchased now, but what education should actually be in an age of constantly available knowledge.

People used to go to school to recharge their batteries

Because if you used to go to school to soak up knowledge, to pump it into yourself, today this has become almost irrelevant. I’m not talking about the fact that understanding the basics and underlying concepts is no longer necessary, but rather the endless memorization. For example, I had to memorize the names of all the birds and plants in our area. That made a certain amount of sense 30 years ago, but of course, how could it be otherwise? But back then it was simply the best way to keep this knowledge readily available. Today, I would probably “shazam” the birds in the forest or something. If I were to go into the forest.

What do children need to learn today to be successful tomorrow?

Today, and I don’t need to say any more, the world looks completely different. And it will look very different again tomorrow. Instead of imparting knowledge, education will have to fulfill a different purpose in the future. The basic knowledge for everyday needs will certainly remain: Mental arithmetic, spelling, geography and so on.

Beyond that, however, there needs to be a rethink, a redefinition of education. A few things that seem obvious to me:

Learn to program

Quite obviously, for me, programming is part of it from the first year of school. It’s not about writing code right from the start, but about learning basic concepts and thought patterns. If Mr. Kraus prefers, you can do that with pencil and paper. It would always be cheaper.

History

History is incredibly important. Not dates and names, but dealing with the lessons of history. It is amazing how quickly humanity forgets its own “fails” and therefore repeats them. There is far too little awareness of history among the average citizen. This urgently needs to be changed.

Science

There should be a subject area that teaches scientific approaches per se. At the end of basic education, every child should understand how new technology and scientific knowledge are gained and how they influence all our lives over time.

Tolerance & discipline

Yes, you read correctly. These two things belong together. And I think many children lack both. I don’t see these two things primarily as values, but as skills. Something you have to learn for life. Please don’t take either too seriously. Many parents today don’t understand that without tolerance and discipline, their children will simply be permanently worse off in life. Tolerance and discipline are the foundation on which a communal society is built. And in times of increasingly divided societies, that seems to me to be worth striving for. You can focus on similarities or differences. Because we are all doing so well materially today, we are unfortunately concentrating on the differences.

Talking about 5 billion is easy

The “digital pact”, war rhetoric we never seem to get rid of, is certainly well-intentioned. But, and it has to be said, it is the path of least resistance. It is much more difficult to initiate a substantive reform of education. To stick with the war rhetoric: A real minefield for an education minister. It is understandable that people would rather order tablets.

A new generation of teachers

Even if many teachers now feel that they have stepped on someone’s toes, I believe that we need an armada of new teachers. We need to make teaching a top profession again. It used to be. And highly respected. After Kraus’ statements, I doubt that it is possible to embark on a new path with the majority of this force. You can’t simply change people, especially teachers. And yes, there are some really great teachers. I even had a few in my school career.

Once again: The USA

We Europeans always smile a little at the education system in the USA. There are these multiple-choice tests, the close ties with the private sector and the incredible student loans. But as far as digitalization in education is concerned, I think they are already further ahead. There is simply less fear of contact.

So we run the risk that while children in the USA are already coding, here in Europe we are still debating whether we should read on paper or screen.

Countless schools and universities in the USA have already adopted Apple’s “Everyone can code” program. In Germany, to my knowledge, and I am happy to be corrected, only the Technical University of Munich has joined the program.

Society, not economy

The fact that we are losing out economically, well, that’s just the way it is. I think we take our current geopolitically and nationally oriented economic performance far too seriously (yes yes yes, I’ll write something about that too). What I find really bad is that with such a backward-looking educational culture, we run the risk of losing ourselves as a society, as a community. And sooner or later we will lose everything.

A society that is economically inferior but has a good, sustainable education can also get its economy back on track with hard work and commitment. A society that is left behind in terms of education can and will only lose. And by that I explicitly mean losing intellectually.