We, as a generation, have been told three times a day for almost 20 years, every day, that education is the key to success. Yes, Indeed education is the only key to become successful. However, while chanting this mantra, our mentors, teachers, parents and we ourselves have forgotten, what is the true meaning of Education.
Millennial Parent’s have had a tendency that going to school & colleges regularly, completing the assignments on time and scoring hefty marks in the exam, is the true meaning of education. Being the teacher’s favourite and excelling in the exams which are based on the traditional pattern of testing a student’s ability.
However, the world-class technological entrepreneur and inventor, Elon Musk have a different opinion about it. In a recent event, Tesla and SpaceX CEO have shared his opinions on how he is not a fan and follower of traditional techniques and system of education. While criticising the study pattern of traditional schooling, Musk shared stories about how he was not only bullied but tormented to learn lessons, which were neither interesting nor knowledgable in any way.
He went on further to share his opinion on how the kids are puzzled most of the time about what are they being taught in class and what is even the relevance of the same. There is a good amount of content in school syllabus which is not even relevant and may not be of any use in practical life but is being taught with a stubborn attitude towards the conventional education system.
Addressing the college education, he said that it does not matter to him that what degree a candidate or an individual holds or from what university he has graduated. In Auto-Bid 2014, he also said that he does not even care for the formal education of any applicant, who comes applying for a job to him. Because he is a believer of knowledge and experience.
On this, he adds that an individual may or may not have a college degree. He may not even have made it to the end of high school, as long as he is eligible for the job and has the knowledge and potential to do it. College degree and school examination grades are not one of the measures on which Musk measures the capabilities of prospective job candidates. People might have passed from a renowned college or have good high school grades, this may be an indication that they are going to perform great in many fields. However, this is not the only indication of one being perfect for a job or a work. You don’t always need a college degree to do great things in life.
Although Elon Musk does not go on to share his opinions regarding Education system, publicly, every now and then, he has replied to a tweet last year that read “You can’t succeed in life without a degree. That’s why you need schooling you want to go to Harvard.”
To which Musk replied, “That’s not true. Don’t confuse schooling with education. I didn’t go to Harvard but the people that work for me did.”
Elon Musk is a person who preaches what he believes and does what he preaches. This is the reason he has decided to build a school for his children, so they will be able to choose wisely their interests and pursue them for life.
Elon Musk said in an interview that he has not seen regular schools doing things that he thinks should be done to improvise the state of education. We have students who have different interests. Some are fond of learning English or any other language, some students are interested in mathematics, some gets excited by science. The schools should be able to provide students with an education system that matches their interests, aptitude and abilities.
He also explained how it is more important and worthy to teach students with hands-on experience technique rather than making children memorise pages long answers to develop their intellect. Giving an example he says:
“Let’s us consider that we’re trying to teach students about how an engine works. If we consider a more traditional approach, we would be saying, that we’re going to teach them about screwdrivers and wrenches.’ This is a very difficult way to do it,” he said.
“It is better to actually let them take the engine apart into pieces, in real life, and let them figure it out on their own,” he added.
“How are they going to take the engine apart? They need a screwdriver. That’s when you tell them what is the significance of the screwdriver is and how useful it is. This way you are able to teach them the relevance of the tools.” he said.
“Teaching them how to solve the problems with tools, by letting them understand the importance of tools themselves, is a much better way than teaching them what the problem is,” he said.
A world-class scientist cum inventor cum technological entrepreneur cum investor, who is known for his work all around the globe, has insecurity about his children’s education. He refused to hand the responsibility of teaching his children to the government’s cliche educational system. This is proof that how conventional education system is not an opportunity rather threat for the forth-coming generation. All of our needs to reconsider the need of putting our children into the system that makes them cram answers than to put them up with a system that innovates education as a whole. It is up to us only.
