We finish high-school and know more about math than we do of ourselves. Yet knowing ourselves is more important than algebra. Current education does not create free, creative and wise individuals, but workers for the requirements of the market. Most universities give you an education that will supply you with a career – not a good life. But careers, as the etymology of the word betrays, are roads for carts – not for human beings.

I wrote that quite some time ago. It’s still an apt criticism but it falls short from providing an alternative to current education. I always wanted to build one but thought it was too big a project to take on, till my current girlfriend Elektra indepenently suggested we start a school. Then it hit me: Why not? So we started thinking. If we were to create a University of the Future for today what would it look like? Here’s where we believe the emphasis should be on:

Development of skills instead of the memorizing of information. For example, teaching you how to think, not what to think. Pieces of information become outdated more easily than an array of skills.

Renaissance style Curriculum: Excessive specialization would be discouraged in favor of a more well-rounded approach. Philosophy, Music, Arts and Sciences as well as physical activities will make an essential part of one’s development as well as real life skills usually neglected at mainstream educational institutions, like:

The Art of Love & Seduction
Knowing Yourself
The Art of Listening
Understanding Women (30-year course. Pre-Requisite: The Art of Listening)
Understanding Men (30-minute course)

Project Based learning – You’d learn by doing not by regurgitating what other people have done. Your projects would be aimed to be as “real world” as possible, legitimate enough so that they can become part of your future CV. By the time you’re out of school you already have a “track-record”.

Entrepreneurship: The approach: “I get an education *then* find a job” is outdated. Every week you will be encouraged to create your own company with the assistance of mentors who are successful in the real world giving you cutting edge advice on how to build and grow your idea into a business, whether profit or not profit. By the time you’re done with your degree you wouldn’t need to find a job because you would already have one.

Online Tools: The university would employ the latest array of Web 2.0+ tools for harnessing the collective intelligence for the benefit of all. Use the ideas of Bootstrapping as suggested by Doug Engelbart. The scope should be global and scalable.

Directed at All Ages: Learning is a life-long process. It’s not something you do when you were young and then are done with it. Older people need to have a way of re-educating themselves without leaving their current job & responsibilities. Multi-age classes sometimes make for a much richer learning experience for all.

Based on Alternative Business Models: Education should be accessible to all for free while at the same time being economically self-sustainable. Alternative business models are essential for achieving this vision. For example, students could pledge that a certain percentage of the profits (1%-5%) that would come from their future activities will be donated back to the University that enabled them to pursue them.

Main Ability Cultivated: The ability to create value and provide it to your fellow human beings in a form they can recognize and are willing to reward you for it so you can keep providing it. That reward need not be exclusively monetary.

Ultimately, a proper education should help people become the best human beings they can be.

You can see my talk at the BIL conference that happened in Long Beach, CA on Feb. 7-8 2009 below:

{ 5 comments }