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Education: An Alien in Society

By Moa Dickmark - March 24, 2014

in design.edu

When I look at schools, I walk into schools, when I interact with schools, I feel like they belong to a different universe. As soon as I set my foot in a school, it feels like I've stepped out of the real world and into a something alien and unnatural.

Most people call it an institution, in the same way that we call a hospital or a prison "an institution."

Institution—this says it all. A public or private place for the care or confinement of inmates, especially mental patients or other disabled or handicapped persons.

Throughout history, it seems like we've been dead set on designing educations and education facilities as to make the students feel locked-in, both body as well as soul.

It doesn't sound very inviting or inspiring, it normally doesn't look very inviting or inspring, and still we want students of all ages to spend a lot of time in these place, we want them to want to learn, to get inspired, to grow as human beings and to become the next generation when building our society. Yet hardly anything about the ordinary education facilities can be called inspiring, or showcase which direction we want our society to go.

For many years, one of of the questions roaming around in my mind on a daily basis has been, 'How can we create an good education that builds the sort of minds we want and need in our society, when we don't even seem to know which sort of society we want?' Which leads to: How can we go about re-arranging our education over and over and over again, without seemingly taking into account that education and society are undeniably intertwined?

This leads back to what I wrote in the very beginning: How come we have been designing institutions that separates, and in some cases, alienates, rather than intertwines education and education facilities with society? And how can we integrate education in such a way that it becomes a more natural, and less alien, base pillar of the society we want to create?

Is it just me, or is this something that we need to start a serious discussion about that crosses national, social and occupational borders...?

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Pim

10 years ago

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It is most certainly not you.
The points raised have been under discussion in the education domain/industry for quite a while.
This RSA animation (based on a TED talk) is a staple on changing the paradigm of education, from one of the greater minds in that domain, professor Ken Robinson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

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Tom Mc

10 years ago

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Jacob,

I went to University of Illinois - Chicago and we had a class that spanned two semesters our final year called Interdisciplinary Product Development. It wasn't as ingrained as what you are proposing within the art department, but we had to work with business and engineering students collaboratively on a project that was sponsored by an outside private company. I believe this was one of the more valuable classes we had to take.

What you are proposing makes even more sense. I think the collaboration happens on its own, but encouraging it would be more beneficial.
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Jacob

10 years ago

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I totally agree. When I was at art school (CCAD), I always wondered why we couldn't run the whole place like its own self-contained economy. Why not have the sculpture students collaborate with the industrial designers, and why not have the print classes work with the ad students? If we're trying to prepare students for a world where they have to work with other people, why are we forcing them to work completely by themselves?
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Tom Mc

10 years ago

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The more government becomes involved, the further from reality schools will depart.

One of the things I loved about the ID program I attended was that the majority of our professors had day jobs - small businesses, consultancies, pet projects, or were on staff at other firms. It was very real because the people teaching us were living in reality.

Then you look at other professors that have been housed in academia for decades (esp social/political science, etc) and they have strong backwards opinions, are very closed-minded, and IMHO do not impart a real world feel to their students. This is the vast majority, as most are unionized, have tenure, and are paid handsomely.

I'd be more in favor of programs that entice employers to let their people go for a few months and work part time (for pay) in a university atmosphere every now and then. No unions, no benefits (employer would still hold the bag here), no red tape.
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Jordan Pelovitz

10 years ago

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Yes, yes, yes. Our education systems have reached a point where they are fundamentally detached from the needs of society, and the needs of students. Higher education has lost it's purpose - it's turned into glorified, expensive trade schools for industries that are already swamped with candidates.
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