The system of education used by most countries today, has a preoccupation with students simply learning and remembering information with a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Yet one of the primary aims of education is to “supposedly” adequately prepare student for a successful and fulfilling career.
Testing is relied upon to indicate a level of proficiency and intelligence. Then, depending on that level of ‘proficiency and intelligence’ the system attempts to guide those students towards one particular potential career or another. Yet this system of mass producing education fails so many students by seldom taking into account their individual natural strengths and weaknesses.
Every child has their own individual natural skills and talents, and arguably the identification and development of natural talent from an early age offers the opportunity to enable each child to achieve their individual greatest potential.
Many mistakenly define a successful career by the amount of money an individual earns, but material gains alone does not ensure their happiness or fulfilment in their future lives. So why would any responsible society encourage a naturally talented artist to become a lawyer or accountant, or a student that shows great proficiency and dexterity working with their hands to become to become a mathemeticiam or scientist, when lasting hapiness and fulfillment is usually associated with doing something which you have a passion for.
The world today now offers a place for virtually every type of talent and skill regardless of whether it be a sporting or artistic pursuit, or a passion for the sciences, health and medicine or business and commerce.
Surely the world would be a far better off and much more enriched place if we worked with young people to identify their natural skills and talents and worked with them to enable the development of those natural abilities, rather than guiding them into careers to which they are not best suited for.
There is often a link between a child’s interests and their natural skills and abilities yet sadly that link is often overlooked or not recognized by both parents and teachers alike.
There is a strong argument to suggest society could contain many more potential child prodigies and brilliant achievers than we realize, simply because many children have never had the opportunity to discover and demonstrate what they are truly capable of. A society that pro-actively takes the time to identify each child’s natural skills and attributes, then provide the encouragement and support to develop those abilities, has the potential to produce many, many more successful, creative, self-motivated, enriched and fulfilled individuals.
There is far more to successfully educating any child than simply giving them information to remember. If we expect 21st Century education to produce outstanding citizens of the future, then we need to recognize the potential of each child individually at an early age.
And while many of those within the infrastructure of education might attempt to explain that the the system does not have the resources to accommodate more of an individual approach to education, we overlook the fact that if we enabled the young to participate and demonstrate their talents and interests, we stimulate their self-motivation to participate and become more productively involved.
If we don’t appreciate the fact that every single child is born with a special or unique talent – and those attributes remain hidden and ignored, then the opportunity for education to perform it’s magic is wasted.
Here at Zane we believe ‘what we can imagine for tomorrow begins with what we can see and do today ……. or as Mahatma Gandhi said “The future depends on what we do in the present.”