Making education relevant

I just finished listening to Charles Leadbeater's TED talk on Education innovation in the slums. Going between India, Brazil, China and East Africa, Leadbeater shares examples of transformative education that is desperately relevant to the living context of children. Speaking of a 14 year-old boy in Brazil,

Leadbeater points out that to this drug-dealing boy, curriculum-based education was boring, it was in no way relevant to his need to survive on a daily basis. What took the boy away from the drug trade, and it was a major trade for him as he drew $200,000/month and employed 200 people; was relevant education, in his case delivered through technology. Using the computer and the Internet, this boy found himself learning material that was relevant to his life, relevant enough that he turned away from all that money, social stature and of course, risk that drug selling afforded him.

To me, that story underscores the power of learning and education that is relevant to the life situation, learning ability and curiosity of a learner. I don't believe that such relevant education is imminently needed only for children growing up in slums in the developing parts of the world. I think its fundamentally needed for children all over the world, whether or not their daily survival depends on what they learn and how they spend their daily minutes.

Why should children in the developed world have to put off the gratification gained from education out several years, waiting for their minds to be filled, passing exams, waiting for graduation before they can apply their learning in significant life situations, in situations that determine their survival? Sure, children in the developed world might not need to fight for physical survival but I argue that they are risking the survival of their creativity, passion, curiosity and the ultimate possibility of rising to their own greatest potential by learning through pre-determined curricula. That seems like a tremendous survival risk to me.

So, the question becomes how does one make education relevant to the lives of children in the developed world? There is no one answer to this question, and there can never be one. The living situation, particular learning style and passion is different in each child. The only way to truly serve out relevant education is by crafting it with each child, by personalizing it. That might sound like a daunting task and it sure can be if we imagine that children are empty pots waiting to be filled by teachers. They are not. Just like the children on the streets of Delhi that taught themselves to use a computer, all children come wired to learn and teach themselves. We don't need teachers to teach. We just need teachers to create a space in which children can teach themselves.

Its time to personalize education, to turn it lose and hand it over in large part to children. Children that are so in charge of their education will surely turn out to be creative, responsible, resourceful, confident and caring. These qualities cannot be taught. They need to be imbibed through the very process that aims to teach.