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by The Wayfinder
St. Maarten doesn’t need people who know what to do when there isn’t a dilemma or problem. Every generation inherits problems that the previous generation did not solve. The island doesn’t need people who know what somebody else did in the past. Some problems haven’t even been invented yet. What is one actually prepared for?”
Arrange for the unexpected. There is a contrast between traditional education and real-life situations. A proper education system or trainings program is not a factory for producing diplomas and certificates. It is supposed to be a place where people become equipped for life realities.
The purpose of education should not be to fill minds with answers, but to equip them with the ability to find answers when nobody has given them one.
What good is an education worth if the answer isn’t found in the textbook? Too often real answers are taught when life gives one problems. Don’t teach one what to think. Teach them how to think. Yesterday’s answers won’t solve tomorrow’s problems. A textbook has answers. The real world doesn’t. Teach the common answer and then take away the book. Whoever knows every answer may still not know what to do.
Are students educated to merely to pass an examination or trained to become capable. The latter is the more important objective. The real test of education is not whether they know the answer that came from the textbook. It is what the student does when there is no answer in the textbook. Examinations test what one remembers. Don’t educate for a test because life tests what one can figure out.
Stop measuring educational success primarily by how many students or workshop participants get through the system with a diploma or certificate but start measuring how capable they are when they come out of it.
Literacy and numeracy may be the most urgent place to start at the primary level. A child who doesn’t adequately master reading, writing and mathematics in the early years has difficulty compensating later, regardless of what that child eventually wants to become. Reading, mathematics, history, science and factual knowledge only provide the basic raw material for thinking. And then?
Next at the secondary level, a sufficiently strong foundation is needed to succeed in the next stage of life. What kind of person an educations system or program wants to produce? St Maarten cannot build a sophisticated economy on weak educational foundations.
If education is not sufficiently connected to the island’s economy, there is something of a paradox. There is a systems problem when businesses say they cannot find enough suitable people, while young people are being educated without necessarily acquiring the skills those businesses need. When employers find that apprentices are insufficiently prepared for employment, it may be difficult to find internships. They expect that even a trainee contributes something valuable to the business.
An education system or program is a failure if it just tries to provide students with answers to the most common questions, instead of teaching them to independently think of solutions for the most common problems. There is a distinction between educational content and the purpose of education, and between answering questions and developing the ability to solve problems. Teach them to independently think of solutions for the most common problems.
The most important thing isn’t another answer to memorize. It is the confidence, curiosity and ability to work out an answer independently. It is not that knowledge and answers don’t matter. But the future will not ask people what they memorized. It will ask them what they can solve. A serious problem arises when memorization becomes the destination rather than the foundation.
St. Maarten’s future cannot be built by repeating yesterday’s solutions. Tomorrow requires thinking about the way through problems that have not yet been solved. That is the training and education that is needed.
About The Wayfinder
A Wayfinder defines a role rather than a person. A Wayfinder is not a leader, a politician, or a critic. A Wayfinder asks questions, studies patterns, and searches for the safest and wisest course ahead. These essays are offered in that spirit—not as answers, but as invitations to think together.
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