Education. How is it relevant nowadays?

I would like to dedicate this article to my nephew, as observing him made me somehow realize and provide me the urge to write about a topic that I felt is not so significant anymore in our current situation -- "Education"

You see, the reason why I mentioned my nephew, is because, currently they are living with me, and technically he still needs to go to school. But because of the current dire situation, things changed drastically not just for him but for most of the kids/students here in my country.

You see I live in the Philippines. Yes I know, everybody would have to say a thing or two about my country. Just like any other country, the Philippines and its ruling bodies aka the government are not perfect. And so far, support from different aspects coming from them is nearly below average (I wouldn't say very low or zero since we are still receiving something the least, but I don't want to focus on that right now). And we can't help it, we are in a situation that we would test all aspects of humanity no matter what. Survival of the fittest, I must say. Am I going way off-topic? OK let me go back. So something that I observed with my nephew is that his daily routine would be; waking up late since he slept late as well the night before, and when he woke up, the first thing he would do or you would hear is the sound of a mobile game, just starting a match. As soon as he woke up, he would grab his mobile phone and play games. And he would do this for like 16-20hrs a day tops. Now, do I blame him? Do I even get mad because he does this? I would say no. Why? It's because just like you and me, he is also a victim of the situation. A situation where he is supposed to be preparing his stuff and eating breakfast getting ready for school but because of what is happening, he isn't. So the only thing that he could probably do, to keep his mind out of what hell is happening right now, is to be away from reality and into his own world where he excels the most.

Now that leads me back to my question.

What is the relevance of education right now?

For once, is it still meaningful for us? The answer is yes and no. To be honest, I myself am not sure. I mean we are living so badly right now, what do we have the time to go to "school" for? So my first question would be this: Is education still relevant in today's time?

Well for me personally, I think that "education" is important. But if I'm talking about the perspective of the poor majority who are in the Philippines and like you and I who live an average life of just struggling every day and not getting enough sleep at night, then we wouldn't have any time to pass an exam or even go to school for that matter. I believe that education is important, but in a different aspect than what this world is like right now.

For once, I can say that "education" has something to do with knowledge. And in our current world, knowledge is never enough. We are living in an age where life is moving faster and faster every day and technology would be the revolutionary factor that would save us from all the madness that we are going through on daily basis. School may not be able to teach us everything, but we can't blame it. It's not the school's fault. It's because we are just not smart enough to learn everything. To be very honest, we aren't humans anymore. We have technology that can do EVERYTHING for us. Our smartphones can perform tons of things for us such as; GPS, cameras, music creation, and more that have been created and improved over time to their current state. Sure it may not have the same numbers of pixels as a DSLR camera but it is still a good enough replacement with what you can get from your cellphone nowadays. What would you even do if your phone was lost? Not to mention that there are music services that can be streamed from your phone which is the same thing as Spotify, and YouTube.

Our technology has now reached such a point that we can now create all the music we want, watch anything from our devices, and even take photos. It's hard to even imagine what would happen if this trend continues further.

But back on topic.

What I personally notice is that most of us nowadays are not aware of our surroundings. We just don't have time for it! I mean I know how much time I've wasted watching videos on Youtube where people play "Call of Duty". I mean I knew the video was boring but it still took me time to look at it. And I know that most of us do this but why? Is it because we have no idea what the world is really like? Is it because we want to be entertained? Amidst the sufferings, we are surrounded with?

Well, in my opinion, it's all of those things.

Many of us play video games while we are supposed to be doing school work and work. But what is the point? I mean why even bother doing school, if you are not going to study, then why even go to the office every day? Isn't school supposed to teach us how to use our brains for solving problems and making decisions? Well in a way I can say that it does but in some cases, it doesn't. Like right now in the situation that we are confronted with, do we really need all that education. We have all the tools we need right here on our device which may or may not be accurate. It may be outdated already.

What I'm saying is that it is pointless for us to put education as a means to solve our problems when we can just have the technology do it for us.

I know this may sound pessimistic but that's what I think. I mean you can say that you are not trying to change the world, but you still are. To be honest, if it weren't for school, I wouldn't even bother learning anything at all because school drill it into our heads and forces us to memorize everything without any reason why we need to do it. There are two sides of the coin here and there is no way someone could win both sides except when they're cheating (like in Halo for example).

The real world is full of suffering and I believe that by going to school, we just can't help ourselves but be oblivious to it.

I mean if you walk around the streets, you will see the same faces each day, no matter how different they are from each other. I mean even if you go to a new place, there will be faces that you saw before but just not in this specific location. But in transit, there is a chance for us to open our eyes and look at things around us. And if we really want to see things change then we should do something about it.

We can't rely on technology all the time as many would say "Technology is not replacing lives".

I think there is a better way to address our problems instead of using technology. I think we can do it through education. I mean right now being an adult is a pain in the neck because you have to deal with books, textbooks, teachers, school work, and even parents.

I remember when I was younger and my aunt bought me a microwave for my birthday. And at first, I was happy because that meant that we could just cook stuff in the kitchen without heating it up on the stove but after spending some time with it, it became boring.

It was hard to keep it clean and to cook food for my family or guests that didn't require heating.

Maybe in a way being a stay-at-home parent is like being in the kitchen all day but dealing with the mess. And now there is technology to deal with all that mess.

We want our children to go to school but we can't force them to do so. I think most of us agree this is a struggle we all go through as parents. So now I have found a solution.

Kids learn through play. As they play games they are developing their mental skills and strengthening their bodies all the way up to adulthood. They learn how to control their emotions, solve problems in creative ways, appeal to another person's thinking process, and of course learn about strategy, war games, or teamwork.

And this is what we need for the future because children will need to use all these skills in college and later on as adults.

I do believe that technology only makes our lives easier and not better so therefore if kids develop these skills while playing games they will be less likely to struggle with whatever comes at them later on.

IMAGE REFERENCE:

• https://theconversation.com/childrens-privacy-is-at-risk-with-rapid-shifts-to-online-schooling-under-coronavirus-135787

• https://theconversation.com/so-youre-going-to-school-online-here-are-6-ways-to-make-the-most-of-it-135215

• https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/can-online-learning-replace-the-school-classroom/article31917964.ece