FOR CHILDREN TO SUCCEED, ADULTS NEED TO BACK OFF

“Whatever the question, education is always the answer,” the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu told me on his 86th birthday, after a shared portion of vanilla ice cream at a family celebration in Cape Town.

What happens, however, when that ‘education’ is veering off-course from the SatNav co-ordinates that parents have carefully keyed in?

Spoiler: There is no catastrophic collision. Parents should get out of their children’s way, and here is why: Research conducted in 2017 threatened to strike horror in the hearts of traditionalists and ambitious (pushy) parents.

According to a survey of 1,000 children, more than three quarters of children aged 6 to 17 aspired to be YouTubers, vloggers and bloggers.

The research by travel firm First Choice revealed that 34 per cent of children would like to be a YouTube personality, while one in five wished to start their own channel.

The research also revealed that children would rather learn how to use video editing software instead of studying traditional subjects such as maths and history.

This will be a familiar battleground to many parents pushing back against the pull of these influencers, even testing the boundaries of millennial parents who themselves have grown up in the digital age.

That research, however, was conducted four years ago – “BC” – Before Covid. According to new research by The Insights Family, there appears to have been a seismic shift in children’s occupational aspirations over the pandemic with scientists, teachers, supermarket workers, doctors and nurses now the new superheroes.

So relax, parents.

Gender inequality sets in early

We analysed the first choices of half a million four to fourteen- year-olds at KidZanias® across the world as part of our Global Barometer of Aspirations.

· In all cases the stereotypes were set pre-school, at the age of four; from pilot to cabin crew and from hairdresser to courier;

· There was very little change between the ages of four and 14;

· Almost all girls chose activities below their age range and almost all boys chose activities above.

This is depressing as there is irrefutable evidence that children can only aspire to what they know exists: male and female, black and white, rich and poor, urban and rural.

When we know all this, why it is that we wait until the age of 14 before we engage children in being aware about what their futures might hold and how they might get there? That is a decade too late.

Future-proof our education system

Our education systems are based on the requirements of the past. Every economic age has its core asset, and, in our time, this is knowledge, skills and character qualities.

Every year the world of work tells the world of education that what is being produced does not meet the necessary requirements in terms of skills and competencies. 

Our schooling now does not cater for the requirements of today let alone tomorrow; we need to learn that in 21st century education: Every child is everybody’s responsibility. The key question arising from our research is: who are the teachers? The answer is, of course, all of us.

By Professor Dr Ger Graus OBE

Professor Dr Ger Graus OBE is a member of Bett’s Global Education Council and will host a panel discussion on Re-imagining Education at the Bett Show which runs from March 23-25, 2022 at London’s ExCeL centre.

He was KidZania’s first Global Education Director and founding CEO of the Children’s University. He is also a board director at Hello Genius.

For more information about Bett, the country’s most established EdTech show which is free to attend, see: https://uk.bettshow.com/