1. There's always one answer to a question
Throughout the process of partaking in systematized educational institutions, there's always a criterion that applies to all the taught knowledge - That there's an answer and it is absolute. Math shares the strongest characteristic of ability to freely choose how one goes about to arrive at the answer. Grammar rules have exceptions, but exceptions are also a form of indisputable truth. This does not mean that the questions, answers and methodologies change. They change to new answers that once again follow the criterion. Granted, they also change at a futilely slow rate.
More importantly, the education would contain questions that are without definite, objectively true answers, but several different ones that make sense depending on the student's subjective perspective. Why is this of importance? The students get programmed that these questions are irrelevant since they are not spoken of. Accordingly, they have trouble living a life guided by personal values, ethics and patterns that correlate with each person's own, innate orientation. The challenge is simply to allow and present more answers to young aspirants of life so that they know of more answers to choose from, that they previously did not know existed. Therefore, it may sometimes be far more important to question where an answer derives from, instead of how to reach it.
2. The search for proof
Strongly linked to the previous challenge, scholastic education is in search of a proof, which then presents its scholars the belief that the proof is fact. This may give rise to the notion that all personal growth pursuits in life should follow this same pattern. However, in some fields of personal advancement, one should acknowledge that a certain belief or faith is the starting point, thus resulting in an expected or unexpected form of proof. The proof will then shape its possessor's perspective on the matter in a positive way either through subscribing to the new belief because it is useful and productive, or discarding it with the personal upgrade of understanding, that it amounts to less or no value in life. By narrowing a person down to only accepting the condition of "Show me the proof, and then I believe.", the individual is limiting oneself from higher understanding on the realms of spirituality, theism, metaphysics, intuition, varying levels of consciousness within and beyond the ego, and the function, progression and meaning of life and death.
3. You should not cooperate in order to learn
This is a challenge that arises from how tests are conducted. I'm not saying it to be wrong for students to learn a sense of independence and responsibility from building a self referential database of knowledge. But ask any successful individual from any field of knowledge and they will state that especially in situations requiring crucial decisions, it is better to consult a mastermind council than to trust that the individual mind knows better or best. This goes for individuals who are aware of the power of mastermind councils that calibrate at an equal to higher level of consciousness, understanding and experience.
4. Group think and conformity
When all think alike, there's not really any thinking going on. There's an advantage behind everyone using the same grammar rules, scientific definitions and numeral base system. But that does not mean that the current grammar, definitions and decimal system are the most optimal ones to use. Additionally, this is a question not linked to the educational arena, but to the social one, creating an unhealthy norm of conformity regarding behaviour, looks, fashion, materialism and mind-sets. The educational setting should form a plaza with positive radiation where equality does not exclude diversity.
5. Being afraid or embarrassed to ask questions
This is a symptom of the previous challenge. Asking questions is a skill. The more you do it, the better questions you're able to ask, producing knowledge of improved quality. The continuous loop of understanding and knowledge that is transferred in between people is the key foundation of future growth as a humanitarian, scientific, spiritual, wealthy and healthy society. Therefore, the courage and will to ask questions is an essential variable in this equation. That 13-year old, bullied girl with low self-esteem may not grasp this revelation because her understanding of herself is that she is mentally and intellectually defect compared to others and is supposed to adapt instead of break free from her internal chains of anxiety.
6. The lack of financial education
The processes of generating and allocating money may sound trifling and inessential, but this view is shared mostly by those not grasping the opposite, that it is a very prevalent and ubiquitous ability producing lifetime impacts. Educating the very basics of sound money management like leverage, delayed and instant gratification, assets and liabilities, good debt and bad debt, good income and bad income, good expenses and bad expenses, positive and negative compounding, cash flow and capital gains, the three vehicles of investments and how to measure wealth, to name a few, would foster productive results and a healthier perspective on money. It is the medium of exchange that has yet to see a better substitute, is the realization of provided value and by itself is inherently neither good nor bad. Simply put, what money is used for reveals each person's appraised value of themselves. Only education has the power to shift financial ignorance into financial intelligence - whether done proactively or through painful lessons, which unfortunately may still keep the solutions obscured.
7. The lack of consciousness and self-help education
Closely related to the first two topics, personal growth is not a one-solution-fits-all form of science or branch of investigation. But simply discussing the numerous variations and alternatives of how to improve ones self-acting, -assertion, -command, -confidence, -consciousness, -control, -criticism, -dependence, -determination, -esteem, -examination, -knowledge, -possession, -praise, -respect, -restraint, -sufficiency, -support, and -will has an impact, if not for the conscious mind of a young student, then in the subconscious mind waiting to flourish once reality starts to present itself as shades of gray instead of definite answers of black or white. This in turn raises the question of balance between service to self and service to others. People cannot serve others with a greater magnitude and understanding than they are aware and capable of serving themselves. This is why the size of self-growth is the bar for how well a person can serve society and humanity, and is the primary in this causality (if you think in terms of causality). What the raise of personal and universal consciousness does, is raise the whole underlying balance of service into higher levels of influential power.
8. How not to diminish creativity
As it is now, the educational system favours left-brain measuring and analyzing over right-brain creativity and visualization. However, order and chaos in the mind ought to synergistically feed each other for improved input and output. As Bohm theorized there to be two universes, one hidden from our five sense and one distinguishable and definable by them, so does the right side of the brain use vision and creativity to imagine great architectural, musical, artistic, literary and cinematographic feats while the left brain uses the technicality, science, patterns and measures to materialize them into the tangible world. While one does not have to be completely ambidextrous in the mind, understanding of the interdependency of both sides of creation is of basic meaning. Thus, the current strong polarization of brain activity in schools is sub-optimal.
9. The 9 to 5 mentality
While the majority of people are naturally inclined to do things right, as they are told and when they are told, the educational system nourishes this behaviour to everyone attending. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this mentality. But as there are people strongly characterized by doing the right things, on their own accord, in level with their internal advancement, their orientation and meaning are clouded until the restraints of inefficient systematization are perceived as relatively weak enough to break free from - in order to create something new and improved. Again, equality and diversion can and are supposed to exist simultaneously and no human is worth more or less regardless of the point of observation.
10. The will to learn
The greatest challenge of them all is, how does one increase the youth's interest and will to learn? The improvement of results in this category influences the other nine topics more than the nine separately influence the others. The ability for teachers to inspire a student to become a lifelong learner has long been failing. Just measure the amount of knowledge that is still remembered after a month has passed from the point of learning. Even students themselves may come to the conclusions that in order to input knowledge, another portion of knowledge is automatically discarded. Or that at a given age, the intellectual capacity has reached a boundary, futile to try to expand.
Conclusively, one cannot discuss the matter of education without bringing parenting into the equation. Therefore, I want to pinpoint the irony of parents fighting against a school system that would address greater effort in improving the 10 challenges discussed in this article, and yet not focus on delivering and discussing these issues of greater wisdom to and with the child themselves. This is why I wanted to write this article - to acknowledge the need that at least one of the sources of knowledge and understanding takes the responsibility of bringing forth the uniqueness and greatness that lies within every child that exists. There is no greater way for a child to express their gratitude towards both knowledge and their parents than to say out loud that they genuinely appreciate that at least one of these sources are and were present in partially creating and supporting their worldview and reality.
