On the Disconnect in Education and the Need for Practicable Knowledge

In our society today we have a bias that is very evident in the way we pursue 'certificates' at the expense of practicable knowledge. This is what breeds garbage-in-garbage-out and kills the ability to engage in critical reasoning thus denying many from obtaining 'functional knowledge'.

I remember hearing Jelani Aliyu (General Motors) say he has never been asked for a certificate to show that he can design! Now imagine the number of unknown gifted 'divergents' we have in our society - people who may not necessarily be on an IQ of 150 but have abundance of creativity.

These individuals are resigned to unfulfilled lives simply because we chose to make the basis of success to be how well one person can retain information compared to another. Essentially that is what our education does and for the winners we give them a piece of paper and send them off to a career which is not necessarily even optimal for them!

That is why we need a paradigm shift in thinking about education. Education should be able to enable the creation of purposeful linkages between knowledge and action in virtually all aspects of our lives.

Haidar Wali 201701090907hrs

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