The Barriers of Delivering Modern Education

 Flash back in time for me...



You're back in school- Let's say it's whatever class you'd have been in around age 13, a time when your attention span is roughly anywhere between 8 seconds and 20 minutes (the latter applies only in subjects you were good at and enjoyed).



Your teacher, one that you didn't mind being around is delivering a subject that you're new to. It's a fairly comfortable spring day, your classmates are not as disruptive as is the case in other classes so you kind of feel like this place is a safe place to unwind.



The teacher calls out your name and asks you a question. You weren't really listening because there was a train going by outside. You panic and give a non-committal mumble but the teacher, who's alright really, asks you the question again. You check your notes (blank) but hazard a guess anyway hoping your subconscious was listening. The teacher nods, gives a platitude and says that they'll come back to your way again in this round of questioning to have another go. You listen. You learn. A train passes by unwatched. You answer a question and feel pretty damn good about it.



How did that feel?

Good?

I hope so! I hope that's a shared experience for all of us. Education is, for the most part a time in our lives that we share with one another, whether it be with your neighbour or with a person living half way around the planet.



Educational experiences like that however, are declining and in some areas are gone entirely. The class of 2020 is an alien world, dealing with minds co-opted by the digital universe. They (the learner), for the most part, treat behind the screen as a second home, a reality with laws they need not learn so long as they function. Like a child looks at a tree flowing in the wind and knows that yes, the wind makes the tree move they know not or care not of the mechanics of the wind itself. Today's learner knows not why the "Accept Cookies" window appears, only that the blue button makes it go away.



You check your phone after it buzzes no notifications you bump into someone outside the room you go in and the phone is lowered while you ask:

"Is this English?"

The old person looks at you and you look at your phone you look behind you for friends they have said something you just look and wait for it to repeat they say:

"Who is your tutor?"

You don't know you can't know they are now asking for your name while you look behind you check your phone to see a snapchat message from your friends friend you follow and it is good to be in contact. Part of your brain unengaged as mumble your name. The tutor says:

"You're with me, have a seat."

You sit and wait and swipe and check again a message has come through you reply with a picture of the table and the caption:

"fml"

The tutor is talking asking you to fill in a form. The form is on paper you can't do that so you ignore it until they ask again because they always ask again if it's important:

"Do you need a pen?"

They have given you one before you can reply. You keep your phone in eyesight. You pause many times during the form (probably not important) to check your phone. Like an animal hunted you keep it below the table line hidden in the shadows because the tutor like all tutors does not understand that you need to check this notification right now or else but then they ask they demand:

"Can you put that away?"

You move it under the table a bit further and hope but they keep staring parting with the screen hurts who knows what you'll miss now you're disconnected. Tutor drones on, they give more paper they ask questions but it's hard it's hard when the phone is away when the notifications can be heard but not answered.

Outside, a train passes by unnoticed.



The truth is that today's learner has grown up and been shaped by this new digital world that is incompatible with education in it's current form.

The late great Sir Ken Robinson, an educator and scholar of brilliance said this on the subject:

"Our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history of the earth. They’re being besieged by information and calls for their attention from every platform: computers, from i-phones, from advertising hoardings, from hundreds of television channels. And we’re penalizing them now for getting distracted. From what? Boring stuff, at school, for the most part."



So what is the answer that solves this issue?



First, understand that there is no solution that sees a return to how things were over 10 years ago. The age of the non-digital student has gone.



Approach the young in your life with this phrase in mind:



"I owe it to them to be more engaging than that screen and master the screen so it's rewards come through me first in a way that's easy, fulfilling and social."



I'm keen to know the thoughts of others, ideally parents, educators and the recently graduated. How do you perceive these barriers? What others have I not mentioned?



Is this the end?



...Of this article? Yes!