Embracing Authenticity in Education
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Esther JacobsEmbracing Authenticity in Education
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Esther JacobsEnErgy & BAlAncE
its as if we Dutch are raised with some sort of false modesty: Act normal, and youre strange enough Compliment someone on their clothing and youll almost always get the answer I bought it in the sales. Ask someone what theyre good at and youll get all sorts of awkward twists and turns or some sort of general story. In America, in contrast, children are raised from the cradle to present themselves. Here in the Netherlands theres some sort of taboo on that. Someonewhoisself-confidentand/orstands out from the rest is quick to be called arrogant, pushy or conceited. Personally I think its okay to be proud of what you do, especially if you happen to be [Link] theres something youre not good at too. People and organizations working with you will only appreciate it: clarity instead of mediocrity! I am surprised how few people know what they are really good at. As a coach I am increasingly approached for help with questions that everyone should address from a young age. Who am I? What do I really want? What am I good at? What makes me happy? Wheres my added value? If you ask yourself these questions, I have noticedanincreaseinconfidence,happiness and an ability to add more value to your environment, work and society. We should really learn these things at school. But our educational system seems to have different objectives. Seth Godin, author of The Purple Cow, amongst others, explains in a free e-book that schools really evolved to produce obedient workers for factories. For decades, this was precisely what our economy and society needed. But everything has changed dramatically in recent years. We no longer trade our manual labor for an hourly wage in factories. Instead were nearly all knowledge workers in an information economy.
EsThEr JAcoBs (19890074) is Also knoWn As ThE no ExcusEs lAdy. shE givEs moTivATionAl spEEchEs And Workshops ABouT Thinking diffErEnTly And rEAlizing your drEAms. in hEr Books shE dEscriBEs hEr oWn procEss of fAlling doWn And gETTing up AgAin, givEs prAcTicAl Tips And shoWs ThAT AnyThings possiBlE. EsThEr livEs A drEAm lifE hErsElf: shE only Works A fEW monThs EAch yEAr And dividEs hEr TimE BETWEEn curAAo (WhErE hEr Wrong mAn livEs) And AmsTErdAm. [Link]
show off!
in a company may have a better solution than the director. Put yourself in the shoes of that student. How do you approach that? Lots of youngsters and one-man-bands use video sites like youTube to share their knowledge, ideas and talents on a large scale. There are free (instruction) videos on every imaginable topic. After Google, youTube has become the largest search engine in the world! young people in particular prefer video instead of text. I think there are opportunities here. For companies, work placement students, educational institutions like Nyenrode, as well as for you. Share your knowledge and passion with the world without expecting anything in return. And at the same time make use of whats on offer. Is there something at which you are better, or understand better than others? Are there questions you often have to answer one-on-one? Why not do so once and for all in a video? Making an (instruction) video or video blog only takes a few minutes. Add a good description, and your knowledge and ideas are available to everyone. Without having to do anything else or peddle them. Now anyone whos interested canfindyou! Making knowledge available free of charge is happening more and more often in academia too. After a year you can follow lectures from the prestigious Harvard for free online for example. Harvardconfirmsitspositionasaleading institution precisely because its giving away its knowledge for free. And theres more: [Link] is unleashing an educational revolution. They are making available thousands of free video lessons online on generally tough topics like mathematics or history. Theyre presented in an understandable or even fun [Link] aligning their education to this new method. Pupils watch the lessons at their own speed at home so that they can stop and start the video as often as they want until they understand the material completely. It allows the teachers at school to concentrate on what normally was the homework: applying the knowledge. And the children spend their time at school on interaction, to which they are far better suited than sitting still and listening to the lesson. And you? Do you stay in your seat obediently and do what is expected of you? Or do you have the guts to turn things upside down, do what suits you and to really show yourself? I argue we should dramatically change our thinking as a society and our school system. Its no longer about knowledge transfer itsaboutfindingyourwayinthatjungle of information, choices and opportunities. Its no longer about conformity its about authenticity. Its not about following obediently, but rather about new leaders generating new solutions for problems that our society and industry have created in the past decades. I hope we can change the attitude of act normal into one of just act!
VCV magazine 254
i hope we can change the attitude of act normal into one of just act!.
The educational system, however, has barely been changed. Learning facts off by heart, for example, stems from a period when knowledge was power. Nowadays information is freely available and it is far more important to learn howtofindandinterpretthatinformation. The old system is based on hierarchy and seniority, although the work placement student
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