The Private Citizen 139: Refocussing the Podcast

I think the topic education is certainly interesting. The internet most definitely has a big influence on the education. But as with most things there are two sides to the coin.
It means you have almost all the knowledge at your fingertips. But it also means that misinformation can be spread really easily.
Therefore the skills critical thinking and the ability to check sources for their credibility become increasingly important. However schools seem to be very slow in catching up to this development.
I also feel, that schools teach less and less skills that have use in everyday life. I think some years back there was a discussion (I believe it was in Germany) that high school students learn to analyse poems, but have no idea how insurances work, or something like that. And the example in the episode that the student didn’t know how to write a letter at least points in the same direction.
In the discussion the question was asked why we see a similar development in different systems. My idea is that a common development in a lot of systems is the following. In my opinion a lot more students (or their parents) believe, that you have to go to university after school. And I think a lot of education systems cater to that thinking. It feels to me that school today prepares the students more to pass tests, than to actually understand the topics that are being taught. This means that the curriculum is streamlined accordingly which leads to the same effect in different systems. Admittedly I did not research the numbers for this theory.
What is your opinion to that idea?

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