Education is one of the core tenets of a functioning society. We all understand the benefits it provides today, as it has been offering the same for over 300 years.

However, unlike many other human inventions that adapt, change, grow, or shrink, education has remained largely unchanged. The traditional model of sitting in a classroom, staying quiet, and doing homework has persisted for centuries.

This continues until university, where students experience more freedom but are still bound to lectures, teachers, and courses.

Why do we often say, “It has worked so far, it will continue to do so,” when discussing education? The truth is, the system is falling apart.

Most of us have had some negative experiences with school. Personally, I found the lack of group work, personal choice, and influence over my education frustrating.

Quite frankly, attending school often felt like I was working for someone else, not for myself.

What Can We Change

There are four key objectives that I believe education must adapt to in order to teach people more effectively:

• Freedom of choice in subjects
• Implement a peer-to-peer model
• Learn by doing rather than only reading
• Reward creative thinking and collaboration

Freedom of Choice

In (high) school, students are given a set curriculum with little time to explore their own interests. If they fail, they are held back a year to retry.

This approach seems like a duct-tape fix to a larger issue in how we educate students.

Every student is unique, learning at different paces and using various methods to understand the material.

However, our current system resembles a year-long memory game rather than making subjects interesting and engaging.

For example, I never enjoyed arts in school but was required to take it. I wanted to focus more on math, but my school prioritized cramming the curriculum to ensure we passed exams.