Schools under pressure

Pupils are changing: Networking generation

The social context around education and society in general is constantly changing. And in recent years even faster than ever. School is given an increasingly more important responsibility in our society. Once having a major social impact on the people, associations or religions are being pushed more and more to the background. Now education is practically the only context where every citizen is obligated to participate. In this situation schools are (against their will?) being given a greater social role. The school becomes a meeting place, a place of social integration and transfer of information for both children and their parents. Companies also set higher demands for schools. The contemporary world of work does not require hundreds of easily replaceable blue or white collar machine cogs, but rather independent, innovative and proactive employees.To make it harder still, education in its traditional form has lost its monopoly in terms of knowledge transfer. Modern media such as TV, the web and others become more and more influential.

As society changes, so do people. Children are more agitated and self conscious; they require more attention and individual guidance as they are receiving less of it now from their working parents. We live in an engaging visual and "always on(line)" culture. This creates expectations that present schools aren't always able to meet. As a result, children often find education boring, and drop classes or drop out altogether. Our contemporary world is changing at an exponential rate. Our education system must adapt with it and find ways to cope with these rapid changes.

A partial solution might be found in the internet. Our children grow up in a networking culture. Everything and everyone is interconnected. This creates opportunities for exchanging information;but it also brings dangers. There is certainly a role that schools can take up in guiding children during their first steps on the internet.

Source: New World of Learning (VANERUM Group)