Which Classes Should Be Mandatory in 2019?

Education is the key to the development of civilization. So, why does education suck in so many countries?

More rational, conscious and critic citizens means less global stupidity and injustice… The biggest genocide of the history (China under Mao, Red Khmer in Cambodia, Rwanda) occurred while education was limited or non-existent. Human Kind salvation begins with a resourceful education for everyone.

We understand the high importance of education. Meanwhile, the current educative system still follows its old 18th-century scheme. A capable and conscious citizen is not anymore, an intelligentsia male who can speak Latin.

The needs of the 21 centuries must be fulfilled by new kinds of classes. Those classes should be considered more important than reading, writing and calculation.

1. Learning How To Learn

According to a LinkedIn survey, from The Family Director, Jean-Charles Kurdali, “learn how to learn” is the most important skill that we don’t get at school.

Traditional education is based on the idea that everyone can learn the same way. To memorize something, we need to take paper notes. Before the exam, we reread those notes. They made me write the Bible, I still can’t quote one verse…

The brain of everyone is different, and the sciences have no clue how it does work exactly. They exist a lot of other different ways to memorize and learn (sketch notes, audio classes, documentaries, expert meeting). I personally use mind maps. The king in this field is Tony Buzan if you are interested.

2. Technology Knowledge for All

We spend 30 % of our active time in front of a screen. It’s crazy to see how many people don’t understand what happens behind the screen. We learn biology to understand the main principles of nature and body composition. Why don’t we learn the main principles of the technologies and their composition? No need to become a developer or engineer. I once had classes in music. We didn’t learn solfege but the historical musical trend.

3. Speed Reading

In the 18th books were a privilege. Nowadays the amount of written content you can find online is dramatically high. For the same piece of information, you have thousands of contents. A lot is non-informative…

Next generations should learn to filter a book quickly and gather the needed information.

Speed reading is not taught in high school… We learn to read aloud! How many times in your life did you read a book aloud? When your secondary teacher asked to do it (one chance on 30 students) or when your child asked for a story (one chance on 7 billion YouTube videos).

To finish a book in 3 days seems more important than loud reading… You’ll increase your knowledge and have a competitive advantage to others. You’ll spend more time to practice and be outside putting into action what you just learn.

4. How to Search the Internet

Almost all knowledge is available online. Ask a student to do a presentation about Alexander The Great, he won’t go to the library anymore. He’ll use online search engines.

The sad reality comes when students don’t know how to search properly for Google or any other search engines… Ask them to look for “fabrication process of a computer”, and they would look proud for “how to make a computer.”

I use Google Trends and Ads every day and I can tell you that 90% of people look for general words like “family” instead of “weekend family activity Brussels.”

Search engines illiteracy is a big handicap. It means that those students won’t have access to all the knowledge available online. If you don’t teach a student, how to download “for free” Photoshop he’ll never use Photoshop… Then our presentation about Alexander The Great will be based on Wikipedia…

5. The Art Of Socialization

Human beings are social creatures. So why does socialization it’s not a priority? Some of my teachers were totally incapable socially. Their public speaking skills weren’t great neither.

In a world where our physical social interactions will be dramatically reduced, it seems important to teach students how to connect and keep healthy social interactions. Loneliness and depression are ahead if we don’t improve our “natural” competence.

Conclusion

Our student period is interesting because it’s the only moment you’re your only task is to learn like hell. Later, you need to learn like hell and make money from it as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately, each student has a limited amount of time. Which subject should we keep mandatory? Religion, Latin, Greek, Mathematics, English, Economics? Each subject has its importance. I won’t be able to learn so easily Spanish if I never had Latin classes.

I believe the next solution remains in no mandatory classes. Each student will choose its topics and be supervised. All subjects can be learned, autodidact. If you push a child to learn about Buddhism when his only interest it’s cooking, you will only create a disgust.  It’s a big debate that I open here. Feel free to continue to discuss with me. 

Education doesn’t have to stop when you are young. Since I left University, I increase my knowledge like never.