Knowledge
Knowledge. What is it?
The oxford dictionary states it as "The sum of what is known."
School's job historically has been to impart knowledge to it's students. To continue to build on humanities' knowledge by understanding what has gone on before.
ref. http://www.bostoncommons.net/knowledge-doubling/?doing_wp_cron=1479671423.9828670024871826171875
The curve is exponential, and shows no sign of slowing down.
So now education stands at crisis point.
We have two options going forward. Either
1. We keep teaching the small portion of knowledge that we can in the 13 years we have students for, whilst letting them miss out on the huge array of knowledge that presides before them,
or
2. We offer students the skills and resources to (guided by teachers) seek knowledge out for themselves, with the aim to make them life long knowledge seekers, so that they can continue to explore the exponential amount of knowledge out there after they leave school.
The options seem pretty clear.
It's time that we as a nation come to understand this. School needs to change what it looks like, and what it's priorities are if we are to keep up with the rate of innovation, and the rate of change in knowledge in the world.
The oxford dictionary states it as "The sum of what is known."
School's job historically has been to impart knowledge to it's students. To continue to build on humanities' knowledge by understanding what has gone on before.
- Until around the 1900's, the sum of human knowledge was doubling every century.
- After the first world war, knowledge was doubling every 25 years.
- Now knowledge doubles every 18 months, and IBM predicts in the future to double every 12 hours.
ref. http://www.bostoncommons.net/knowledge-doubling/?doing_wp_cron=1479671423.9828670024871826171875
The curve is exponential, and shows no sign of slowing down.
So now education stands at crisis point.
We have two options going forward. Either
1. We keep teaching the small portion of knowledge that we can in the 13 years we have students for, whilst letting them miss out on the huge array of knowledge that presides before them,
or
2. We offer students the skills and resources to (guided by teachers) seek knowledge out for themselves, with the aim to make them life long knowledge seekers, so that they can continue to explore the exponential amount of knowledge out there after they leave school.
The options seem pretty clear.
It's time that we as a nation come to understand this. School needs to change what it looks like, and what it's priorities are if we are to keep up with the rate of innovation, and the rate of change in knowledge in the world.
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