I wanted to post this “article” for a long time
ago. People ask economists for answers that they don’t really have, this is the
truth. People need trust, people want us to tell them what to do, and we don’t
know it always. Properly combining limited knowledge and the need for public
policy together with common sense is the key.
I think we should talk about the main cause of
poverty. In a democratic environment you must believe and feel that you have
opportunities and access to a fair portion of the pie. I do not think anyone believes
that everyone should be successful but at least they should feel they have the
opportunity to do so, for example if someone has good ideas or work for it,
then they may be successful and feel it. It is essential to start from the
base that opportunities are there for everyone and not just for a few. If we
lose that feeling, as it is the case of Spain among with many other countries,
the political consequences are disastrous. But how did we start it? We have
disregarded education, the pillar of our society. We have left education in the
hands of the politicians who change the model very periodically with worse and
worse results. Spain has done very little to make teaching attractive, the main
problem is the lack of relevance that students see in teaching.
For example, in Spain we have 25 textbooks for
a single subject, the culpable of this as well as in many other fields the
Spanish autonomies, as usual. We have a very decentralized system that causes a
deterioration of the Spanish educational system and polarizes it by regions. The
ANELE denounced that the disparate requirements of the Spaniard autonomous
governments, lead a publisher to publish each year an average of up to 25
different textbooks for the same subject of the same mandatory course. It
provokes an increase of the prices in these manuals, which deteriorates the
coherence of the educative system; it is more than proved that nowadays there
is too much diversity in these manuals. It is hard to believe that a student
from Galicia, a region from Spain, studies the history of Spain with different
content than a student from Andalucia another region of Spain, and this is just
an example.
This is very sad because those who do not have
a good educational base stay in the margins of society. Students are not
offered more options to learn differently. In Japan, the language teacher works
with the mathematics teacher. Finland has also begun to deliver these
multidisciplinary courses, hoping that students will act as historians,
philosophers or scientists. We must teach fewer things but in more depth,
Spaniard students are good at memorizing, but they have trouble solving complex
problems. Teachers have to leave the classroom and look at what other teachers
do, do not divide the contents so much by subject and we must bet on the
integration of the subjects and the diversity of itineraries. –Tell me and I’ll
forget, show me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn- Benjamin Franklin.
In order not to blame just the state and independently
of the country, parents must rethink what they are teaching wrong to their
children because this is not just a school problem; manners and bases are
taught in home. It is enough fail parenting strategies please! Stop telling
your children they are special all the time, stop telling them that they have
everything they want in life just because they want it, stop giving medals for
being last because devalues the reward of the ones who really work hard. In an
instant they will realize they are not as special as their parents make them
believe, in the real world they will find out that their mom can not help them
to achieve the promotion in that job they want just because they want it.
So in the end we have an entire generation that
it is growing up with lower self-esteem than previous generations. Most of them are growing up in a Facebook, Instagram world where they are good at
putting filters on things and showing everyone that life is awesome even if
they are depressed. They believe they are so tough but the reality is that
there is not toughness on it and most of people have not figured it out yet. Many
“kids” don’t know how to form deep meaningful relationships, most of their
friendships are superficial, they would not rely on their friends they just
have fun with them and for sure they know that their friends will cancel out
them if something better comes along. So they do not have the skills to deal
with the stress of the harsh reality, they are turning to a social media device,
which offers temporary relief. Science proves that people who spend more time
in social media suffers high rates of depression. There is nothing wrong with
social media and cellphones it is the imbalance. For example, if you are siting
at lunch with the ones you want or a meeting and you are texting at the same
time to someone who is not there and you are supposed to be listening and speaking,
that is a problem, bad education, an addiction. Like every addiction in time it
will destroy relationships, it will cost time, it will cost money and at the
end it will make your life worse. Another problem of this generation is
impatience, because they are growing up in a world of instant gratification.
One day if it is not too late they will realize they can not have job
satisfaction and strength of relationships with an app. They have to learn
confidence, learn patience, learn the social skills, find a better balance between
life and technology because it is the RIGHT thing to do.
In conclusion, the more advanced countries have
not politicized education the way Spain has done for almost 41 years, the
advanced countries have reached a consensus because they know that education is
an investment with long-term guarantees. It is a shame for a developed country
like Spain that 35% of the young Spaniards between 25 and 34 years old does not
have the high school, double that in the OECD. If people do not participate in
the reforms and do not help, nothing is going to be achieved. We must
depoliticize education through consensus. This causes ignorance in the
population and instability for future generations. We live in a world full of
radicalism in which it is easy to fall if we do not take action and we must
eradicate it on time before it is too late. As well as the independence
movements in Galicia, Basque Country and Catalonia, the islamophobia or hate to
any ethnic group we are human beings with the gift of reason, let’s use it
because the best weapon against radicalism is education as Nelson Mandela said -Education
is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world-, and our job
is to change this world we live in a better place.
