Ideal education isn’t about learning facts, but training the mind to think

The other day when I was preparing to teach critical thinking and problem solving to one of my Management classes, I landed on a very beautiful statement by Albert Einstein that “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think”. It read so beautifully for me and I spend some good time, not only re-reading it, but also reflecting on my society.

Of course every time I think about education and reflect deeply on my country’s education, my first disappointment is usually the fact that I am a teacher, but I have not yet done enough to make a reasonable contribution to the future of education in my country. But all hope is not lost. Whereas we cannot change what has already happened, we can still start from where we are and redirect the future processes and generations.

The statement by Einstein got me thinking and I was forced to reflect on the many times I have been teaching and after I have taught a wonderful topic and ask my students to ask any question, instead of them asking me how they can apply that topic to real life or work situations, majority will ask you to tell them which kind of questions can be asked about such a topic.
The intention is usually to be prepared enough to answer questions very well in the exam and score grade A. And the trend goes this way until one finishes their degree with first class honours. It is until they join the labour market that is when the fruits begin to show. This accounts for the very complicated humanity that we find ourselves surrounded with.

Simply put, you will get graduates who are either unemployable, or even when you employ them, they just cannot do much. When you meet many of them on the streets looking for jobs, you ask them which job they can do and they will proudly tell you that they can do anything. At this point, you will have committed a great crime if you ask one to tell you any skill they have. Practically, they have no idea what they are actually chasing.
But see, an education that trains learners to use and grow their mind, open it to the environment to appreciate the fact that they are in school to be able to manipulate the environment for production and making society better, is what we deserve.

Training the mind to think will definitely afford us great innovators, collaborators, team players, smart workers, focused citizens and problem solvers as well as movers of stuff. Such an education can afford us great leaders, who use reason to make laws for the country, great leaders who reflect on the reason why they are in leadership and leaders who think about the future of the country. Such an education can afford us a descent effort to get the country together by appreciating the fact that we are so many tribes in Uganda not to hate each other but to harness our different gifting and use them to better our country.
Such an education can afford us innovative entrepreneurs that will disrupt the status quo and transform the way we do business. Such an education can afford us better public servants who know that their service to the nation is at the core of its development.

Such an education can afford us government technocrats who have the capacity to envision the future of our country, draw practical and relevant strategies and plans for the growth of society. Such an education can afford us Opposition leaders who have the brain muscle to realise that collaboration and competition among themselves is the only way to position themselves as a formidable alternative to Uganda’s leadership agenda.

I mean, such an education is what can attract Fresh Kid to actually prioritise going to school because he will be able to grow his talent and become the star that he so much desires to be, but not the education that will teach him the parts of an insect (head, thorax, and abdomen); not an education that will teach him about the Tennessee Valley, and not the hills and beautiful scenery of Kigezi.

Not an education that will teach Fresh Kid about Napoleon the great and the French Revolution without showing him how relevant this revolution is, instead of the Luweero triangle, which is actually in his home district. Such an education is one that would afford us a better mindset as citizens towards all that we engage in, ranging from living together, initiating efforts for a better society, participating in political processes, engaging in business and wealth generation, interacting with one another for better social cohesion, such an attitude is so desirable even for our growth and the growth of this nation.

In my opinion, such an education that emphasises the training of the mind to think should be adopted over the one that conditions us to learn old facts that may not make a lot of sense. I think we need to rather make an effort to create new facts. We need to look at things with their originality and use innovative and reflective minds to make things happen. Such is the education that I desire to see. And that is the reason I am so inspired by Einstein.

Mr Kyokwijuka is the executive director
at Youth Aid Africa. [email protected]