African Education
Education (if we take a holistic understanding of the word) is so much more than a vehicle to get a job and therefore money. It is also about how you live in the world. There is a million miles between the educated and the uneducated, the conscious (aware) and the unaware. Educated people create a stimulating environment for their children to ensure they become productive in the world. Uneducated people give their children sweets and park them in front of the TV, only taking care of their wants (nice shoes, junk food) and ignoring all of their needs (education, healthy food, mentally stimulating activities, ethics).
There is an educational crisis globally. And it is not only the type of information they teach students, it is especially in an area known as Pedagogy. Despite all the names of different educational systems they all use a very old Colonial methodology. So when people leave university they find a clash/disparity between what they learned at school and the real world. It explains why people leave film school not being able to be real-world filmmakers. Obviously, if you go to an A-class University like UCLA things would be different. But sometimes we meet graduates and throw them in front of a computer and they just tell us they studied computers for 3 years yet cannot do anything useful. You see learning has been replaced by abstract memorizing-they are not taught to THINK. Proper teaching has been replaced by robotic programming of students. So they study business in a lab but have no grasp of it in the living real world.
DEFINE EDUCATION
<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/F0T80UsiUS8″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>However you define education we need education. Some argue that education has in many components. And it is true. A holistic understanding of education is not just E=Mc2- it is much more than vomiting up dates and orphan facts (and we were clear about this in 500 Years Later). But we need to understand that mainstream education is critical for our development. At the end of the day to make a film, or make clothes, or run a business requires education at some level. To make a house requires an education, to deal with the water crisis in some parts of Africa requires Water engineers on and on. But that is not even the totality of education. Educated people in traditional African societies (like KMT and Great Zimbabwe) were also trained in socialization. How to behave in a society, how to debate and disagree. How to acquire knowledge. All of this is education. And all of this, by whatever wide or narrow definition you use is life or death for African people everywhere. Lack of education about business and culture allows us to be exploited in our own lands. A lack of education about how the modern world works leaves us vulnerable and dependable. Education is also about knowing one’s self.
TRANS-DISCIPLINARY
The world is very complex. Something might look strange when you do not understand it. But there is only one solution for us simple humans to process the world and that is to read, engage with others, and experience it. We cannot assist you with traveling to the far-flung corners of the globe but we can say go and read some books on Kindle. And the thing you need to know about information/knowledge is the complex relationship between it. If I said go read a book about language, you only going to get so much of it if you do not understand communication and culture, and you not going to ever get culture unless you understand identity. And to get identity you need politics. There are prerequisites for each topic, and no topic stands alone, it is a network of information required for a solid understanding. And this is the strength of AHS we do what is called Trans-disciplinary studies. To figure out the great human issues we must even study agriculture, religion/culture and language because all of these created human civilizations. And to really study Africa, you better be prepared to study the world..
