Is our education system effective?

What am I talking about?

I am telling the story of Geeta. It is NOT about how hard the poor girl has to study and give tests every month. Nor am I talking about Geeta being Indian and thus having a better education than her American friend, Amy.

This is a story of Geeta. Of her kids'. Of her kid's kid's.

Of what she learned in school. Of what she did after school. Of what her kids learned and what their kids did for a living.

Our future? Our Unintended Aim?

You must be still be wondering what I am talking about. Well, a bit of background- What is it that we have to do as a species? We have to survive. And the best way for us to survive is to grow, expand, reproduce- spread out. First it was Africa, then Asia, then most of the world. Next step, the stars.

Ah, this is not a sci-fi story. Just a bit of reality stated succinctly to setup the background.

You see, how else will I prove that Geeta and her kids, all of them, have to specialize in some subjects and add some original thought into our human knowledge pool?

Geeta, today. Her kids, tomorrow.

Geeta is a Java programmer. She doesn't lead a completely boring life. She works 5 days a week and goes out for dinners over weekends. She will be doing the same when she is forty.

One day, an asteroid comes and destroys earth. No Geeta. No Kids. No mankind. Another billion years wasted.

Her kid's life needs to be saved. But is it up to her? She is after all, just a java programmer. Is it up to that one cell in my liver to keep me alive?

The only solution is for us to escape the planet. Survival through diversification. We also need to greatly increase our knowledge structure so future calamities can be dealt with. These two can come around only through huge numbers in population and yes, education.

I'll give another example. Centuries ago, our population was tiny, education was limited to a handful. Thereby, it actually took us thousands of years to discover electricity and all the other inventions that depend on it. But, imagine if we had then the population that we have now. If we had then the education that we still don't have. The industrial age would have come a couple of thousand years earlier.

How? You still ask? I'll give another more extreme, more cliché sort of example. Take our body. Our individual cells are not that different from an amoeba's. However, what makes us different is that we have billions of them (population) and that they are specialized. If our only motive to exist is to be intelligent then those few brain cells are being supported by the lung cells who are being supported by the heart cells who in turn, are being nourished by the intestine cells…(Specialization) Our body is also able to keep its knowledge of all these cell's work together and pass it on to the next generation through DNA. (Knowledge Storage)

This is the aim towards which we are progressing. Mankind will get there- have a huge population, have more specialized functions. Question is, how can we make it happen faster. Can we afford another couple of thousand years to discover the now equivalent of electricity's discovery?

Geeta needs to be able to become a java programmer not at 23 but much much earlier. She needs to learn and grow and contribute to society- faster.

Conserve knowledge AND Train EVERYONE on earth to be specialists?

First one is easier- conserve our knowledge. We have already lost invaluable bits of knowledge till date. The best ways of irrigation, surviving without water, moving heavy objects have already been lost.

I mean, imagine Geeta, she is a Java programmer. Wouldn't it be a waste if her kid's kid's kid's kid got an equivalent of a noble price for spending a lifetime creating a 'new' way of getting/storing data?

We have to conserve our collective knowledge else we take 2 steps forward, 1 back.

Oh yes, computers! Such an obvious in-my-face answer, right?

But computers only act as libraries. Much bigger, much faster, including much more personal knowledge but still a library. We need to provide training to ourselves so we can pick bits of information from this library and use it to add something original of our own. Collectively, taking us all forward, towards our unintended aim. Take Geeta's future kid. Imagine he lives in this system of basic training/education and a system of computers to access when some piece of knowledge is required. To make it simpler, let's put it in Geeta's context- it will be akin to her being a Computer Science major and wanting to contribute towards the Aurangzeb's historical significance. Sure, she can look it all up on Google. But, can she actually, gather enough data to be able to see some fact that was missed by someone else and ADD to our understanding of the man? Probably, not. She will mostly go through Wikipedia and a couple of books and write some blog entry about it- summarizing but not contributing.

But all this is obvious. Right?

Ah, but then my point had to be established. We can have mechanical storage of data. In fact, it is essential that we do it. However, we will also at the same time have to have a species storage.

Heavy, weird term. But, all it means is that Geeta needs to be educated, have a career and then teach her kids.

Is our current system of schools and colleges the right one, the best one to make sure that Geeta's 7^th grandchild and not her 20^th grandchild is born not on earth?

Our current system is that of specialized knowledge. That is good. That is what Geeta needs to be able to comprehend everything around her and still build a place in society where she can contribute her share.

What we however need to get her kid into the stars, next century and not 2000 years later, is a much, much more specialized system.

Grow more specialized, faster

Do all of us really need to learn calculus? Geeta is a java programmer. Sure, she might need calculus. But then again, does she need to know when Aurungzeb attacked India? The exact date? His commander-in-chief's name? Would that really help towards making her programming better?

Specialization is still being achieved in the current system. Through higher and higher education. But this system is not optimized. Does it really help our goal if Geeta gets a PhD? At the age of 30? She would still have to be trained by her company.

Most people join companies after college. Most companies hire fresh bachelor's graduates. Most graduates spend the next three years of work learning the tricks of the trade. Most graduates stick to their career choice.

But most graduates don't join companies with the degree they graduated in. Every day I get resumes of people having career histories completely opposite of their college degrees. Sales people with chemistry degree. Programmers with physics degrees. I, myself? Management with computers degree. Never programmed after college.

A solution is to cut out the crap.

I don't need to learn calculus. I don't need to know the history of the civil war. I can Google.

Back to Geeta. She has a bachelor's in Computers. She has been made a general specialist with this degree.
She can write high/low level programs, complex/simple algorithms, use Java/.net, be a technical journalist, create computer chips, be a scientist in computers- basically anything of her choosing right out of college. Does this really specialize her? Can she contribute her bit to mankind?
Not really. She has generic knowledge. It's all extremely useful to be able to fit in society. Her education gets her more reverence by her peers and manager. But that's it. It's mostly junk.
The real education is on the job. Geeta was trained again by her company. She learned by doing. Even these social skills like humanities learnt in college are re-learnt at work.

Education through Companies.

Wouldn't it be great if Geeta could have decided that she wanted to work as a java programmer when she was 14? Rather than starting training at a company 10 years later, if she could start training with them at 14?

If she were to choose to work for NASA, she could apply, get her aptitude tested and actually get trained at the age of 14. No crap- pure education. Pure specialization.

Companies acting like education centers. Specializing everyone- faster. They get paid to train- like a college. They in turn get highly trained people perfect for the job. No money wasted on training fresh graduates.

This will fit into the economics of the globe

Geeta gets a basic education- arithmetic, one language, brief history of mankind, basic sciences- then makes her choice. She gets a specialized education, gets to work faster, and produces more. Her kids might still reach the stars.

Question is what if she wants to change? What age is too early to choose? Is 18 the right age? Have all of us chosen the right fields?