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We are a long way from having any sort of education equity in our country. I’m optimistic that we can achieve equity once our people understand that it doesn’t exist now and understand the benefits of education equity. Having under educated people creates a society of “us and them”. It leads to social unrest and populism. It is the root of a diseased society.

Leaders would tell you that the inequality has to do with lack of funding, but why are the good educational opportunities most often present for the middle class and up? That is because they have the political power. End of story. They are the doctors, teachers, lawyers, architects, engineers and so many other professional positions in our society. They shape the system. They often believe that if someone is to succeed financially in life, others have to be subservient to them. They believe we should keep the lower classes lower.

We’ll fix that! I’m optimitic. It’s the soft revolution that will make a huge difference for all of us.

But once everyone gets access to the same education content, is the same education content serving us well?
Most education content is designed to exercise short term memory challenges. Learning for the test and quiz is critical for success, but it is short-lived. Hundreds of students have told me that they don’t see the point of this type of schooling. They forget most everything after the test or examination.

With AI finding information for us in seconds, why do we need to retain facts? Or better still, what facts do we need to retain and what skills do we need to develop? This is the question we need to ask. Some are. The problem is our education system is extremely bureaucratic and run by governments who often have no expertise. It responds extremely slowly to change. Change is now happening at lightning speed!

Besides the skills and knowledge we need to attain for success in our society, what experiences, skills and knowledge do we need to flourish as human beings? How do we build ourselves into strong, brave, resilient individuals with the necessary grit to face life’s challenges?

What could we be teaching consistently from the beginning? Not just one elective class in high school, but classes each year that teach:

Money/Finance class: not just one class, but classes each year starting from the beginning!
Earth class: empowerment and understanding to make our earth healthy again
Creativity Class
Teaching, Learning and Mentoring/Apprenticeship class: right from the very beginning, learning how
Critical Thinking class: not as part of something else, but how critical thinking works; every year of education
World Cultures Class: this includes a knowledge of world religions: every year of schooling and not elective
Great thinkers’ class: philosophy as a foundation for how to think and how cultures are formed
Role Models Class: investigating outstanding human beings and how they’ve lived their lives
Student driven subject class: put the learner in the driver’s seat
Values and Ethics class: sorely needed in our world today. We must teach good values, ethics and morals
The no curriculum class: a class where students shape the education they want
The unlearn class; this is where we question what we’ve learned: is it true? Is it valuable? Has it made me a better person?
The social justice class: a cause driven class
Leadership class: how to lead in any role and how to support leadership
How to get things done class: time management, goals, habits
Invention class: creating new things: this is extremely relevant with the problems our society is facing right now
Problem solving class: project based learning. Not just math, but real human challenges facing everyone
The Art of Being Class: what does it mean to be a human being?
How to build “self” class: the people we hang out with, the books we read, the music we play and more
Mortality class:  or perhaps:  Life Span Class: what is death? Yes, let’s talk about that
Beliefs Class: what do you believe? Why is it important?
Food Class: where does food come from, preparing it, sitting and having a meal together
Survival Class: grit and resilience to conquer or walk around life’s problems
The Great Teachers Class: who are the great masters? What wisdom did they leave us?
Performance and conquering fear class
Personal Development Class
Peace Class
Quiet Class (Meditation, Mindfulness etc.)
History: there is a huge focus on national history, but little else. How about that has repeated itself class?
Self-care class: How to look after my body class: understanding physiology
Sexuality class (every year of schooling)
Human behavior class: psychology
The class on what we don’t know.
The class on building a social movement: empowering the people
The class on global policy and politics
The class on diversity, equity and inclusion
The class on reconciliation: what does it mean? How can it be part of every day living?
Outdoor nature class
Personal Finance Class including investing
The doing nothing class:  naps, meditation, wasting time, sleep, unprogrammed time, how to observe and be present: The mandala class: The doodling class
The collaboration class: How to collaborate
The walking class (walks help the brain to think, notice, be creative, practice meditation, help the brain process ideas and much more). This would also include expedition learning outside of the classroom (what do we have to sit at desks to learn?

These are just a few ideas to spur some thought about things other than math scores and literacy. The arts are critical to our development personally and our development as a society. They need to be in every school “deluxe”. That means classes in dance, visual arts, theatre, music, and much more. Every year for every child!

Let’s work together to incubate a new education experience. One that liberates young people to be their best selves and at the same time, benefit society.

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Ranking systems for education are extremely flawed and myopic. For example, the U.S. World and News report ranks Canada in the top five countries for education. But what does this mean? If you ask students about schooling in Canada, most will not be happy with the system. They often talk about short-term memory and forgetting everything after tests. They also are exasperated about the extensive and intensive testing including standardized tests. Most don’t see the point of the curriculum and delivery. Even teachers are fed-up with the system where they often feel they can’t be creative in their teaching. I’ve done hundreds of interviews with teachers and students to determine this conclusion. Perhaps you have your own stories.

A growing gap in enriched education is happening. Many schools don’t have arts or music programs. Some schools have everything. Often this is related to class and wealth gaps. Some school districts have public schools for the arts where a limited amount of students can attend by audition. So many are turned away. A good example of this is Pearson School for the Arts in London Ontario. Why should one school be an arts school and the rest not have that branding. Research is showing that every child will benefit greatly from an arts education and that it is fundamental to having the ability to create anything in life. Neuroscientists as Stanford and many other Universities have research to prove this.

We can’t go on measuring education by test scores. We must measure it by well-being and grit. How engaged are students in learning for the sake of the benefits to their lives? I’m not talking about the corporate job, I’m talking about building who we are as human beings (not human doings) and being able to flourish in our world. We need a moral reconning as a society! What values should we use when measuring education and our lives in general? In places like Finland (the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row), they focus on the well-being of the student. They don’t test in the first seven years of education as they trust their teachers to know how the students are doing and what they need to succeed. Education is also free to the PhD!

Education equity is one of the major footprints leading to our social ailments. People are slipping through the cracks and ending up on our streets in large part because of our education inequity. Let’s strive to correct this. At a time when we need to re-brand our country, let’s make education our number one investment!