Being Creative-Collaborative

The world has become unpredictable in many ways. Consider the exceptional weather we are having lately, delayed rains, short-cold winter, snow in summer in Australia. Consider the economic crises. Consider the governments and regimes. As we enter these modern times many things will become more and more uncertain.

However, one thing is certain. Going forward the most required thing would be to be creative and collaborative. How important is this can be judged from who gets paid a lot these days.  Look at Technology,  Media, Design, Finance, Governance, Diplomats -if you can be creative and collaborative then you are in demand.

These very qualities are also required for our future. Consider the challenges we will face in future. We will have to tackle global warming, create a world-wide stable financial system, take-care of aged and growing population, feed the masses. All of these are enormous tasks and they absolutely require you to be creative and collaborative.

So how are we training our children for such a future ? The answer is  - Not at all. I find that in school we are still worried about fixed curriculum, standardized teaching and standardized evaluation. Batches after batches of students who are judged individually on their knowledge of topics which are not very relevant. Next generation is being educated for things which are going to be useless to themselves and to the world.

We should be teaching children how to collaborate, how to accommodate diverse of opinions, how to compromise, how to re-train and adapt. How to compare, infer and integrate. Dealing with people and coordinating will be more important in future. To use technical terms - next generation should be trained not to design "products" but "solutions".

There isn't much hope that existing schools will/can adapt themselves for this challenge, in time. We will have to build system parallel to schools, where kids mix with others, brainstorm, collaborate and create solutions to their immediate and pressing problems. Then they would be ready to take on the tough future that they will be facing.

Multi-tasking and Teaching

The skill of multi-tasking your work is not easy to learn. With training a few learn to manage two critical tasks at the same time. This is most apparent in technology organizations where creative work needs to be done with quality, to the specification and on a tight time-line. In such organizations, one is careful in giving more than two projects to anyone at a time.

There is some sense it this practice. Loading a person with more tasks would result in sub-standard results. There may be an upper limit on our mental resources which makes it harder for us to multi-task between more than two projects

Now contrast this with a teacher in a typical school. At any given time, there are many  time-critical projects on teacher's head. Here is a not-very-uncommon list of them - other than teaching a lesson, there is managing the class, correcting notebooks, setting exam papers, evaluating papers, substitute classes, filling progress reports, attendance, lesson-plans, dealing with parents, meetings, concerts, sports-day, national-days, projects, presentations.

Many of the above tasks are ON at the same time. But more importantly all of them are important. The requirements for any of the above tasks is not very different from those of technical projects. A teacher needs to be creative and resourceful to deliver results with quality, to the specification and on a tight time-line.

Has anyone asked, how much a teacher can multi-task ? Consider the role played by a teacher in children's life. Consider if the teacher delivers badly on all these tasks in the end. In the view of this reality, is it possible for a teacher to deliver quality education. Multi-tasking beyond two projects is impractical. We need to address this if there is any chance of improving education.

How far out is ok...

Every one of us must have come across some inspiring teachers. And usually they would have some peculiar ways. They would talk or walk or behave differently - almost to the point of becoming a joke in the school. I had a teacher who was manic about chalk dust, unless every thing around him was chalk-dust-free he wouldn't start teaching. He used to carry his own dust-free chalks and pick them up like surgical tools. Another teacher used to go silent in the middle of a lecture, leaving us wondering in our seats till the bell rang. I think there was some connection between being inspiring and peculiar. Looking back we think of these teachers fondly.

So let us look at todays schools. There are many more schools and school-teachers now than there were 30 years back. One would expect greater number of peculiar-inspiring teachers in schools today. Surprisingly the teacher-community has become quite uniform across schools today. There is so much uniformity amongst teachers now that  if one teacher is replaced by another at a short notice, it doesn't matter. The lesson of any subject can go on as usual.

One obvious reason may be that a talented teacher can find much better jobs outside schools. It is rare to find an inspiring teacher in schools however high may be the salary. Yet, I think this alone does not explain the deficit of cranky-inspiring teachers. In many fields we see people working with passion against all odds. Then why do we not see enough of inspiring teachers in education.

I think there is another reason. Schools have become less tolerant to any kind of outlier teachers over time. An inspiring teacher is little too unpredictable or weird. Schools don't want to take a risk of employing a teacher who does not fit their norms. And strictly so. School have become methodical in running the school with set norms. This has weeded out good teachers who may otherwise have some peculiar ways to handle the class or teach.

Collectively, the schools, parents, policy-makers and educationalists who have fixed ideas about teaching have reduced the diversity of teaching styles in class-room.

The cream of the class...

In any class there are children who behave well and who don't behave. I don't call them good children and bad children, because its not the 'children' who are good or bad but its 'their behaviour' which is good or bad. Teachers often forget to make this important distinction or do not make it visibly enough. So many children grow up thinking they are good or bad in themselves. So it is important to point out the difference over here.

But there is a third, smaller category of children. Some children are academically good but they give hard time to teachers otherwise. They finish their work and get into some unrelated activity in class. Like, they start a game when they quickly finish maths work. They are not shy of suggesting or giving opinions. Like, they give me reasons why I should not be teaching Maths but Science today. They argue back making weird exceptions to your point. Like, one child asked me if veins have valves to stop blood flowing downwards then are there valves in arteries going to brain ? They play on words. Like a child told me in Maths class that this is an example example. These children are typically not toppers in the class. Neither do they seem to care much.

Usually they recognize smartness in others and are sporty about it. The sheer fun of playing around with ideas is greater to them than personal grudges. They are the ones who, I hope, will grow-up and question the system. They will think out-of box. With right opportunity and guidance, they would become leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors, inspiring educators. According to me this third category of children are the cream of the class, however difficult they may be to a teacher.

A middle way...

The current model of schools evolved during the Industrial Age. Skilled workers were required on a regular basis to a variety of industries. Miners, ship-builders, accountants, Rail-road builders, Tailors, Doctors, Masons etc. These jobs required a common foundation on which further training was given. The schools were designed to provide the work-force and they continue to function in the same spirit.

But the world around us today looks nothing like it used to in the Industrial Age. Three things have changed,

• Manufacturing - is now far less dependent on labour. The bigger opportunities are in services that require thinking and collaborations.
• Internet - provides enormous amount of knowledge now. You can take advance courses, provide services, launch a venture, show your talents. You use the net, phone or modern transport.
• Mentors - Never in the human history can you find so many specialized, learned scholars in one place as in todays cities. You have many passionate engineers, scientists, programmers, managers, linguists, artisans, scholars living around your house. 

So why are kids being still Educated by a system that was designed for the Industrial Age. Are we sending kids to school so that they can get a manufacturing job ? not likely.

We need a new model of schooling. One that takes into account new aspiration. One that takes best of what school and outside world has to offer. I propose a three point solution,

• Find a least-demanding school closest to your house which has small working hours. A school which would take care of your child's need of socialization. This would cost you less and free-up a lot of time for the child.
• Find a handful of mentors around your house where your child can go as an apprentice to learn from passionate people. Drawing, Maths, Science, tennis, swimming, Sanskrit, Drama whatever interests the kid.
• Invest the time and money to travel wide to give exposure to your child. Historic places, geographic sites, camps, workshops. Use that spare money to teach skills  - a camera for movie making, a computer for programming, a studio for fabric design, a kitchen for baking, a lab for science experiments.

Till we change the model of schooling or until the current model becomes completely redundant, this may be the middle way which provides best education.

PS : Yes, home schooling is an option but its not for everyone. Also, home schooling has  its own limitation unless there are many home schoolers around to make a society. That is why I think this is a middle way.

What works..

Of late, interesting discoveries are happening in the study of Human interactions. What motivates humans, how to get best out of human interaction etc. Here is one talk on what motivates us.

A lot of this work is driven by the realization that unless we understand how people work, and work together we can't get the best that they have to offer. Of course, leading this revolution in work-environment are the small and nimble technology companies. They attract the best of the talents, make amazing products and also make money in the process. Yet a lot of great free stuff comes out of these organizations.

Even NGOs and Service companies have realized that good business results not necessarily from high-pay or strict quality control, but by pointing the people in right direction and letting them take charge of their work and life.

In case of Technology companies, the drive to make an idea succeed makes them adopt fresh ideas of human-resources. In case of service sector, its the drive to give the best service makes them adopt best practices. Now a days even some government departments are adopting new ways to manage staff and provide services.

So how has this new look at human resources affected our schools. Schools after all are where one needs highest creativity, most dedicated and hard-working people. People on whom future of our kids depends. It is where human interaction is at the very heart of good education. Shouldn't they be the leaders in modern methods of people management ?

Sadly, most Educational institutions are far from adopting these ideas. They are not much worried about how they manage their human resources (that is teachers and children). They continue to be run like the old government departments - going in for the lowest tender in everything they do, making archaic rules  - with the only difference that they now take-in high fees.

One reason may be that society doesn't looks at schools as "service-providers". What value are you getting for the money you pay. What is the worth of school-teaching in todays market (other than a certificate). If schools are also treated as competing service-providers then that will make schools take a note of how they treat their human resources.

Schools are in danger of making themselves irrelevant to people and their education.  Someone is bound to ask the question, what kind of educational service are we getting ? and is it worth it ? I believe that time will come soon.

The Four Things

Interacting with children often makes you think about your fundamentals. During a recent project of mine, a nature-camp with children, I got to crystallize one such thought. We started the discussion on most important things in life and around ? This is how it went.

Obviously, money is important, they said. You can do so many things with money. Don't we learn so that we can earn more money ? true. Someone said that resources are important. Water, food, houses - then we discussed how some resources are easy to make like cars and houses. But some resources like trees and pure water take many years to make, so they are more precious. One boy suggested working is important - that is hard work (grown-ups would have said labour). Indeed a lot of things are not possible without hard work.

This discussion went on for a while and I started seeing a pattern in what the kids were talking. It seems there are just four basic things that are important in life. They are - money, hard work, skills and ideas.

Of course, love, peace, family are also important but these are rather abstract concepts. Ideas, hard work, skills are as real as money and they can be traded with each other. A lot of money without ideas, skills and hard work isn't a worth while life.

Can we exchange an idea for a meal ? Can I feed you for a price of a skill ? How about hard work in return of a good idea ? Can we build a business or a community on trading these four things. At the least it would be great fun.  Its a pity that money alone has tilted the scale off-balance. Our children should be exposed to idea that skills, hard work, ideas and money, are important and can be exchanged.

Thanks to the discussion with kids, we found the four basic things we must trade to live a better life - Ideas, Skills, Hard Work and Money.