As I enter into semester finals week of an International Business Management undergraduate, I will once again be tested on my ability to remember models, diagrams and processes.
Many of these I will never use in my future career. That is, unless queue wait time calculations and reciting leadership style categories from memory becomes an important feature of economics.
In fact, even if they were, it seems the ability to memorize these facts aren't really valuable in the workplace or life at all. The only time in the world we can't go and look for the information we need these days is during a paper test.
But we tell children and adult learners alike that they need to memorize to learn. Enforcing this belief however doesn't train anyone for success.
Sir Ken Robinson makes an inspiring speech on the issue where he says: "Creativity is as important as literacy". His talk can be found at TED.com.
His points are clear and should be common sense. Someone entering school today (2011) will be retiring around 2070. But history shows experts have consistently been unable to predict the future 5-10 years ahead. So, how can we know what needs to be taught?
The answer lies in giving learners the skills they need to teach themselves. I'm at a university where unfortunately the majority of students aren't able to research decent information on the internet. They are younger than me and they grew up with the internet. And they will be our future.
Much of what I learn today about business may be invalid 10 years from now. What anyone learns today may not be valid in 10 years. New unforeseen problems will come up, and new methods will be needed to solve them. And as change in our environment accelerates, our ability to adapt becomes more important. For every new encounter we meet, we need creativity.
If we teach our children today how to teach themselves, imagine what kind of future we might create.
