However, not only science is reflected in our education but also society itself. Do we teach practical processes or abstract philosophies? How does everyone talk about history and politics? Are we able to acknowledge mistakes in our state?
Often when we take a look at the educational system, we can also say a lot about how the state is functioning. Is this an educational system that invites critical thinking or one that produces marionettes?
Education forms us, the ones that build our society and who ultimately will also adjust our educational system and like this reflect back on our learnings.
It is true that formal education is not the only learning that we have in life, it is probably not even the most important one. Scientists say that the first three years of education determine most who you are going to be and most people are not yet in kindergarten by this age. We can also not forget that we live in a digital age where everybody can educate themselves. Nevertheless, this is the one thing we can control as a society. And we have to keep going with the time and change our system instead of leaving it as it “always” was.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what many countries are doing. We still have schools that do not teach adequately about colonialism, that uphold gender stereotypes and that rely heavily on traditional teaching even though modern studies show that this is not the best way to learn. This is because the social change lies mostly in the younger generation. They are more flexible in their opinions and accept change more easily. In the end this also means that things will change eventually.
We just have to wait until the younger generations grow up and naturally take possession of the power in society. On the one hand it is frustrating to wait for change especially because by this time there will already be new insights and ideas that will take again a long time to realize.
On the other hand however, maybe this time is needed to ensure a safer conversion. By the time society is ready for the new ideas we will have verified which of them have the potential to endure over a long period of time and developed concepts that have them as their basis. What we will not be able to change is this slow process of generations and the change they fight for.
As G.K. Chesterton puts it:
“Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another”.