Education

Ideas

• The current functioning of schools is not adapted to the advancements in technology; thus, they need to reinvent themselves.
• The new role of schools involves acquiring fundamental knowledge, forming effective citizens, and socializing children.
• Artificial intelligence is gradually involved in educational training by providing personalized support to each child.
• Citizen education involves a common core of historical, political, economic, and social education, as well as the study of Constitutions.
• Schools must also teach how to live well: health, relationships, personal finances...

The Obsolescence of School?

The current form of school has allowed for the mass education of the population, which is obviously a good thing. But technological advances and the influence of the system on education call its functioning into question.

Firstly, knowledge has become omnipresent on the internet, which is everywhere. Is it really necessary to know the names of capitals? To be able to recite geological eras? Where is the limit between necessary knowledge, useful for building the intellect, and encyclopedic knowledge that the internet allows us to instantly access? This question is not easy, but it should set the limit of the mandatory teaching perimeter. The main focus should be on learning how to think; the rest is already there.

Furthermore, modern school has become more of a conformity test than a place of learning and wonder. Children are evaluated based on their submission to instructions or a program, praised for their smooth and uneventful behavior. Creativity, intelligence, and the ability to learn independently are ignored or punished. It produces dull and submissive humans, incapable of critical thinking and originality!

The economic system reinforces this aspect by recognizing diplomas issued by the school system; to enter the system, a diploma is required, so one must go through school and submit to the conformity test. The internet has already begun to erode this phenomenon by allowing talented geeks to build fortunes without going through the school system.

The Software Democracy school must integrate these new elements; it must incorporate the fact that it no longer has a monopoly on knowledge and rethink accordingly.

The Omnipresence of Knowledge on the Internet

Free education is abundant on the internet. It's the desire to learn that's scarce.
Naval Ravikant.

• YouTube videos: the quantity and quality of educational videos on YouTube is prodigious. Whether it's for technical, manual, or intellectual professions, the best in each field have produced accessible content for free learning and training.

• If one is looking for more structured content, Openclassrooms and other structures offer complete courses, leading to an official or unofficial degree. Most major universities also offer their content online.

• ChatGPT may be the most incredible tool for transforming education since... since when? It can answer all questions, in all fields, in all forms, explain, deepen... Certainly, the tool is young, but the potential is extraordinary.

• To go even further, one can imagine the use of a tool such as ChatGPT as an individual trainer/coach/mentor. It would follow each student, provide them with their training program, correct their work... How long before artificial intelligence becomes our primary educator? (George Hotz's idea and the formidable performance advantage of individually mentored learners vs. group courses)

Is school destined to disappear? No, but it must transform itself to adapt to these new (or future) realities.

The New Role of School

The goal is not to eliminate school, but quite the opposite! The aim is to adapt it to technology and to software democracy. Its role remains essential as beyond basic knowledge, it allows for the socialization of children. There is value in recess!

As children grow and learn to learn, education can become more individualized and digitized with the help of a virtual and individual instructor AGI-AI. This does not prevent children from being together in collective structures and receiving the assistance of human trainers or teachers; but each will follow their own path within the group.

Is there still a common core? Yes, of course: school must ensure the acquisition of basic knowledge (reading, writing, basic math), and it must educate effective citizens and free, autonomous, and happy humans.

Basic Knowledge

While we can imagine individualized training for adults and adolescents, guided by artificial intelligence, younger children will still fully benefit from traditional classes. They will learn the basics that will enable them to learn independently: reading, writing, basic math, and the use of digital tools (learning how to use them, how to search, how to learn).

They can then gradually transition to a more individualized path.

Citizen Training

Another fundamental objective of school is to educate citizens and free individuals. Young people must follow a common core to ensure a minimum of historical, political, economic, and social education.

In parallel, we will study the Constitutions. These founding texts are the cornerstone of Software Democracy, and a deep knowledge of them enables future citizens to understand the issues of their role.

Finally, the presence of the group allows for learning debate, the confrontation of ideas, and the construction of critical thinking, an essential prerequisite for effective young participation in public debate.

Learning to Live Well

Beyond basic knowledge and the education of future citizens, school can expand its scope and provide young people with tools to live fully:

• learn to manage their health (nutrition, exercise, stress management...).
• learn to build good interpersonal relationships.
• learn to build good habits.
• learn to manage their finances.
  Only healthy individuals can build a healthy society.

Let's talk about it!