'Mickey Mouse' Degrees

Ed Caesar wrote an article for the Sunday Times Magazine a couple of months ago entitled ‘Nice Little Learners’. In it he posed the question – which subject will get you the best job? A: English Literature or B: Golf Studies. As this blog has already suggested the conventionality of our current education system would lead students to English Literature every time, dismissing the latter as a ‘mickey mouse’ degree. Nevertheless, Caesar goes on to document the careers of some of the recipients of these so called ‘mickey mouse’ degrees.

Lucinda Davies, a 24 year old who graduated with a 2:1 in Golf Management Studies from the University of Birmingham, was poached by a resort in Egypt before she had even completed her studies. She is now back in England working as a coach and club pro. However, her ambitions stretch further. One day she would love to run the PGA tour.

Mhairi Mc Donald graduated from Heriot-Watt University in Edingburgh in 2007 with a first-class Msc in Brewing and Distilling. Not only is every person in her year employed but she has her “dream job” in brand development for Glenglassaugh Distillery in Aberdeenshire. Others qualify from courses such as; Stained-glass Studies, Surfing Studies and Computer-games Programming. Many arrive at college with three As at A-level. Proving that these graduates are not only academically intelligent, but are creatively intelligent too.

In a time when 40,000 young people graduating this year will be out of work students need to think more creatively about what kind of returns they are going to get from their qualifications.

Academic Inflation

 

Who is our current education system for? Who succeeds at it? If we were honest in answering these questions we'd have to admit that the purpose of the current education system is to produce university professors. Is this the pinnacle of all human achievement? Surely it's just a form of life. Ken Robinson tell us that the current education system came into being to meet the needs of industrialism and that the hierarchy of subjects is based on two ideas;

1. The most useful subjects for work are at the top. People are steered away from things at school; things that they like because "You would never get a job doing that!"

2. Academic ability, because universities designed the system in their image.

The consequences are that many highly intelligent, brilliant, creative people think they're not. We have to try to change this. According to UNESCO in the next thirty years more people will be graduating through education than ever before. Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. Twenty years ago if you had a degree you had a job. But now many people with degrees are unemployed because a job that used to require a BA now requires an MA and so on. This process of academic inflation is indicative of the fact that the whole process of education is shifting beneath our feet. In my view we need to rethink our idea of intelligence.

Does our current education system work?

We are currently facing great challenges. We need the next generation to be smarter more adaptable and better prepared than any that have gone before. Our only chance is to improve our education systems; to find a way to make the most of our students' talents and a way to help them face the challenges of the modern world. One size no longer fits all. We need to prepare young people for the here and now and the emerging issues of our time.

AN INSIGHTFUL VIDEO ON THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATING FOR THE FUTURE

Ken Robinson-Creativity

In education creativity is as important now as literacy. We have to rethink the fundamental way we're educating our children. We should embrace the gift of human imagination and educate for the future.

Intuition matters too!

Robert Cooper in his book The Other 90%, speaks of the ‘heart’ brain and the ‘gut’ brain. He tells us that whenever we have a direct experience it does not go directly to the brain in our heads. The first place it goes is to the neurological networks of the intestinal tract and heart. This is why we often experience our first reaction to events as a ‘gut’ reaction. Whether or not we acknowledge them he says our gut reactions shape everything we do. I would like to deal with the importance of this ‘gut’ reaction and how it’s essential in the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. The importance of which is diminished in our current education system.

Whistle while you work!

Behaviour therapy tells us that we are what we do. Our jobs are the implementation of who we are. It makes sense that we all engage in work that gives us meaning. We need to create an environment in our schools in which we nurture each child's individual talents and passions. Often parents steer their children away from their true talents because they think that they have to follow conventional paths in order to be successful. The goal here is to convey the benefits to everybody of connecting properly with our individual talents. I feel very passionately about this, as everyday in school I see students being forced into areas that do not inspire them and worse still do not make the best use of their natural abilities. It would be far more beneficial to see students doing things they love to do and being aware of their own particular talents. Ken Robinson, in his book, The Element, describes people who have achieved the balance between passion and talent, as those who; “have discovered their Element- the place where the things you love to do and the things that you are good at come together”. (Robinson, K. 2009, p.8).

 Our work must inspire us!

Intelligence is diverse!

Intelligence is diverse. We think about the world how we experience it; visually, sounds, kinesthetic, abstract terms and movement. Intelligence is also dynamic. Creativity, which is the process of having original thoughts and ideas that have value, more often than not comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeings things. We have to rethink the way we're educating our children to attend to their individual intelligences

Hierarchy of school subjects.

Every education system in the world has the same hierarchy of subjects. Maths and languages are at the top, humanities in the middle and at the bottom are the arts. There is even a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music have a higher status than drama and dance. Ken Robinson tells us "there isn't an education system in the world that teaches dance everyday to students the way it teaches them mathematics." Why? Maths is important but so is dance. If your talent lies in dance and not in mathematics then the education system is failing you!

Picasso once said, 'all Children are born artists!'

We are all  born with tremendous capabilities but we lose touch with them as we grow older. In essence I want this blog to reflect the concerns that parents have when they are trying to help their kids figure out their futures. Often parents steer their children away from their true talents because they think that they have to follow conventional paths in order to be successful. My goal here is to convey the benefits to everybody of connecting properly with our individual talents.

Allow children to be creative!

In his biography of Einstein, Walter Isaacson says “As a young student, he never did well at rote learning. And later, as a theorist, his success came not from the brute strength of his mental processing power but from his imagination and creativity. He could construct complex equations, but more important, he knew that math is the language nature uses to describe her wonders.”(Robinson, K. 2009 p. 50). As the sign below proves, we are continually trying to prevent children from experiencing the world creatively and hence are prohibiting their understanding of nature’s wonders. 

'Schooling' and 'External Control' prohibits learning

The main reason so many students are doing badly and even good students are not doing their best is that our schools, firmly supported by school boards, politicions and parents, all of whom follow external control pyschology, adhere rigidly to the idea that what is taught in school is right and that students who wont learn it should be punished. Glasser, 1998 P.237

A Vision of Students Today

This video depicts the importance of technology in today's classroom. The learners of today expect to be able to create, consume, remix and share information with one another. They text, blog and instant messsage one another on a daily basis. It’s our job to teach them to think, to create, to analyse, to evaluate and to apply. We need to use technology in an enaging way to help our students develop higher level thinking skills. Students need to be enabled to create digitally. Technology should be embraced as a central part of the education system. It is important to realise that technology will motivate our students. It will engage them and enhance their learning experience. It will also allow them the freedom to do well in today’s world.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH AN INSIGHTFUL VIDEO-A VISION OF STUDENTS TODAY