Dare To Learn!

Why, How and….WHO!

Dare To Learn, Helsinki september 2019

Today I was an inspired visitor of the conference Dare to Learn in Helsinki. I am visiting this amazing city together with 15 teachers, educational leaders, scientist, and artists from the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU). We are all connected to the Centre of Life Long Learning in this institute. We are in Helsinki actually to find out what this means…Life Long Learning (LLL). 

Being here has transformed my ideas. I looked upon LLL as a way to help professionals develop themselves during their working life, and of course this is part of it. But much more than that it is about flexibility, custom made curricula, and learner centred education. 

Now this all might sound a bit boring… but the way the Fins translate this is absolutely inspiring. 

We’ve been overwhelmed by an amazing collection of people telling us that education is at the core of a sustainable future for our world. Without even blinking an eye. Not posed as a question, but as a starting point from which to build on. As an evident fundament of society: “if we do not learn, we will die” as one of the speakers said. 

Now part of this story is also told in the Netherlands: we have to prepare our children for a future we cannot totally predict. There is even some consensus about that. Some. Because often we debate this. Maybe we do not debate this fundament persé, but more the way we translate this in education. How can we prepare children for this future and what do they need to learn. Curriculum.nu has tried to identify these two. Resulting in a proposition that is fiercely debated in our country. We do not agree on the How or the What.

To me, being here, made one thing clear. We might have to go back to the drawing table. 

Why do we need to educate our children? 

What is the role of education? When are we successful? The Fins are clear about that. If we can support our kids, young and older people to have e meaningful life. Life becomes meaningful if you do a job that gives you satisfaction and helps to build a better, more sustainable world.  They’re also clear about the How. The changing world makes it necessarily for us to continuously develop and adapt. In schools, in jobs, in companies. And especially: together, combined, in ‘authentic’ worlds. Taking responsibility all together for this big purpose: what you do will help to create a more sustainable world and way of living. Thus: make education, training, professionalization available for everyone. Within companies, between companies and schools, in universities. Also: make it flexible. Make it possible to continuously learn through a combination of work and study. Make it possible to follow courses for small fees and open up your universities for the outside world. Finally, the Fins seem to have an important starting point if it comes to learning: 

Trust 

They trust that people want to learn. They trust that people want to learn together. The control of education is not top down. As the director of Metropolia , Katri Luukka said: “It has to happen from the source, the bottom, and than we will have to follow that lead”. This gives a lot of autonomy to the educators. 

Now. Today I had a revelation when I heard the keynote of Ryan Findley, head of the new African Leadership University. He agreed that for his school it is easier to find new ways and structures since there is no past. It is a brand new school that does not carry the weight of “this is how we are doing things”. His university is an institute designed for the future, not from the past. 

In his keynote mister Findley started with the ‘why’ and I was settling down for another version of the ‘Sinek story’. But then he surprised me. 

Yes: we need to find out Why people need to learn. Also, we need to find new ways How to do that. Especially since Artificial Intelligence is taking over so many jobs. But then he did not say What, but Who. In his keynote he stressed the fact that in every learning situation it should be about the learner. Who is he or she, what motivates this person, what are the dreams and longings. What do all these different people need, to be able to help build a better world?

At the start of the first year his students climb up this amazing mountain and at the top talk about who they are and why they are there and what their dreams are. The university than is just a partner in helping to fulfill the dream.

Back to the Netherlands. Where unions of musician, Math teachers, language society & art historians all unite to criticize the new ideas posed in curriculum.nu. One of the main questions asked is: where has my subject gone? The discussion is on the What and some on the How. People seem to be afraid that they are losing things. They are so afraid that they do not question themselves. What I see in the Netherlands is a game of Stratego… people turn their back and keep their own cards to their chest. There is no Co-Creation or dialogue. There is fear. Fear for the changing world and the demands on our educational systems. 

Reports state that we are losing 80% of existing jobs to robots. But reports also show that there are many more new jobs arising. Jobs we do not know yet. As we do not know the future. But we do know there are big challenges ahead.

Our young people deserve to be seen, to be heard, to be inspired, to be taught, to be coached, to be challenged. They need us to guide them, not only to tell them what use to be. We need to build schools and universities where flexibility, and possibilities are at the core. Where there is space for meaning making and exploration. Where the students are invited to fulfill their dreams. Together. So they can all together help to build a sustainable world and way of living.

At the conference I talked to the Finnish board. The nice woman asked me where I was from. When I said: 'The Netherlands", her eyes started to shine. "We look up to your country and your educational system". Which is funny, since we are in Finland for the same reason. This made something else clear to me: we are all trying. We should unite hands across countries and share. Because there is Sales: the story we are trying to find, and Delivery: how to translate this into action. Let's do this. Now.