Imagine, create and do
Rethinking Education Series 1
“What I love Doing”; Students are Relegating School work to pursue their passion
Sir: Should the school be a place to discover yourself or a place to nurture your already discovered self?
In recent times, having been in a school environment for close to two years now; I am amazed at the rate of students who are seemingly relegating their full time school work as a side meal and in turn pursuing and giving a die-hard commitment to ‘what they love doing’ (a phrase used to describe their passion).
What do I mean? How do you reconcile an international relations student pursuing fashion designing with every sense of commitment or a medical student who cannot wait to graduate and though referred to as a doctor (as his mum/dad wish) will put aside his practice to concentrate on his booming passion for comedy?
There are so many of these scenarios I see daily as I walk through the university and interact with students. The big question I ask myself is: ‘what are we not doing right’?
Why is it that the cliché ‘what I love doing/my passion’ is suddenly ringing so loud in our higher institutions and to a huge disappointment, none of these ‘love doings’ aligns with the courses being studied by most of these students. May be while we are asleep, a generation crazy about their passion are awake and are willing to defer judgment to pursue what is dear to them.
Thanks to YouTube, Massive Open Online courses and the like that are serving as a vital self-training tool for our young people whilst their parents pay schools fees for courses that might NEVER be useful to them for the rest of their lives after school.
Our educational system and families have laid a wrong foundation and there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift; a shift to a system that will aid our children discover themselves early and walk their way through the walls of school nurturing their desires and passion with a set goal in mind to fill a gap.
The gap that your child have been wired to fill in life must be established very early; Zucherberg identified this, left school (since school lacked the resources) sought ways to train himself in filling that gap he identified and the rest they say is history. Sadly, the restrictive school system paints him as a dropout. We do not need dropouts. We need a school ready and equipped to turn ‘what our young people love doing’ to an awesome wonder.
Can we for once think like a farmer: from the beginning, he is clear on the crop he wants to plant, gets the seed, and clears the land, plant and nurtures till harvest? Parents should nurture the passion of their children, they should not be coerced into professions that is far different from what their passion says.
Daberechi Okedurum is a Creative Thinking and Problem Solving Facilitator.
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Rightly spoken
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