Allow me to wax philosophical for a moment.  Is the education we need now different than it was 50 years ago, 20 years ago, 5 years ago, last year?  Undeniably, credentialling is every bit as important now as it was at any time in the past.  This is the kind of education associated with degrees, diplomas, and certificates.  But what about general education about topics we didn’t have to know about before?  What is the role of community education?

The world is so much more complex and interconnected than it used to be.  Before, you wrote a letter, licked a stamp, and dropped it in a mailbox.  Now, you’re expected to know about email, web forms, social networking, blogs, online shopping, and what else?  How can you keep up?  With what should you keep up?  In some ways, society isn’t giving us a choice.  We must keep up, especially with technology, or be forever left behind.  On the other hand, we have more choice than we’ve ever had before.   (For an engineer like me, this is freakin’ cool!)

In the current Health Care debate, we are learning more and more about how the medical establishment works, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that if you don’t take charge of your own health care, you may not receive the care you need and deserve.  We used to put our complete faith in the family doctor.  We can’t do that anymore.  It may be a group of doctors we see.  Our doctor may have many more responsibilities than before.  There is so much information.  How can we keep up?  How do we set priorities?  Well, Health Care is a priority for everyone.  As someone said, “would you rather be inconvenienced one hour a day to look after your health or be not bothered and dead 24 hours a day?”

Community education is about learning the things they never taught you in school.  And increasingly, these are things your parents don’t teach you as well.   I feel guilty that my children never learned things that I learned as a child, but it wasn’t like they weren’t busy.  They (and we) just had different priorities.

So the education must adapt to the priorities.  What’s important to you that you never learned?  The technology allows us to address nearly any subject.   What should we teach?  What do you need?  Please comment below.  What are your thoughts?

Regards,

Jim