The Education Industry Needs to Evolve

Education is the one industry that touches all other industries. This can be said because every profession, skill, etc., needs teachers.

Like every industry, education has its ups and downs, and the pattern does not necessarily fall under traditional business downturns; in fact, when the market is down, people often go back to school.

Traditional educational institutions often like to consider themselves bastions of free thinking and the incubators of new ideas. However, as someone who has worked in the industry for a while now, I need to point out that educators hate change! Curriculum changes are often done out of shear necessity and not proactively. Leadership changes (especially if the person comes from the outside) are looked on with suspicion. The “old boys” network still rules who gets hired, fired, and what gets swept under the rug to avoid scandal. Educators are often among the most indiscreet people, the rumor mills are terrible, despite FERPA!

The educational needs of citizens have also changed. People must work and still need access to education for work promotions or job prospects. Why then are so many schools still resistant to adding online technology to their repertoire?

The sad part is that needed change is often resisted not because of operational capabilities, but because of internal culture and traditions.

EDUCATORS WE CAN AND NEED TO DO BETTER!

How can we teach change leadership when we refuse to apply those principles to ourselves? How can we teach human resources when our own HR departments do not apply HR principles? How can we teach finance and accounting, yet a school is going bankrupt because of mismanagement? How can we teach history, sociology, and cultural anthropology when our campuses are ripe with bigotry, sexism, misogyny, and yes racism?

In order for schools to survive this rapidly changing playing field, real change is needed, not just lip service, not just a coat of new paint. This topic is almost a cliché, yet, the discussion is need of constant renewal!

Look inside yourselves, look inside your institutions, and ask yourselves: are you practicing what you are preaching? Are you ready to evolve?

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Sociopaths do walk among us

Sociopath: “a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience”.

How to Spot a Sociopath: https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/how-spot-sociopath

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the one that is real, and too often we human beings are good at making excuses for other peoples’ bad behavior.

Sociopaths are real, they might not even recognize (or care) what they are, and in this day of social media, we seem to be letting them into our lives all the more rapidly.

Do not give up on people, but it is ok to take your time before letting someone into your life.

Slow down! Thoughts from an educator

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

U.S.A is still a young country

Jut a reminder that the U.S. is still a very young country, and we all know young people make mistakes. If you don't believe me, may I remind you that there are still some children whose parents fought in the civil war 150 years ago, STILL ALIVE!

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/…/141111-veterans-day-…/

There are still children whose PARENTS were slaves still walking this country!
https://www.currentaffairs.org/20…/…/slavery-was-very-recent

Food for thought....

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Anti-Social Media: the age of hate

“Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration”

Social: “living and breeding in more or less organized communities especially for the purposes of cooperation and mutual benefit”

The purpose of social media was help us get more connected, to share, collaborate, etc.; especially with people who lived far away. There is nothing social about the way we see it being used today:

·         Cyber bullying

·         Hate Speech

·         Shaming

These are just some of the daily things that happen on social media, and it seems like we are at the point where this kind of negativity is overtaking the positive aspect of what it was created for.

What is interesting is that people feel safe behind their computer screen, they say things to people virtually, that they would never say face to face. They feel powerful behind their anonymous keyboard personas, and unfortunately, even the most sane people can fall into this trap.

How many of you have commented on a post that was so outrageous you felt you had to say something? Did you change the poster’s mind? Did you truly feel better after commenting? Did you find yourself getting sucked into a back and forth cyber war?

The term “keyboard warrior” is recent, and it describes these cyber nuts who use the internet as their platform for hate. They have even infected our political discourse and debased it to the point where there is no discourse, just dysfunction. We cannot even have civil online conversations with other groups about the important things that affect us anymore!

I do not know what the solution is, but I know that ignoring an issue does not make it go away.

Remember the word social in social media, attempt to think of society at large when you post. This is not a kumbaya article, just a plea for sanity before we are all irreversibly gripped by madness.

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam