To answer this question ‘Do we need to reimagine education?’ I think we need to go back to a more fundamental question – what is the purpose of public education? Some would say that it is for creating graduates who are able to enter the workforce. In other words, have students that upon graduation can get a job and become ‘contributing’ member of society/the economy. This is closely related to – or a different way of saying – that education is about creating a workforce that meets the needs of the economy. Although I worked as an Employment Facilitator in Coop Education at Camosun, I do not think education is about preparing workers. I am not dismissing or downplaying the desire for graduates to get a job, I know personally all to well what that is like. But we are now becoming very aware that with environmental degradation, species extinction, climate change, one human crisis after another, our current global capitalist system is NOT the way we can or should keep operating for the long-term health of the planet and all of its inhabitants. As such, the education system that perpetuates this mode of being that focuses on the short-term needs of the economy needs to be reimagined. It needs to be reimagined so that it can help us address the needs of the planet and all its inhabitants and ‘turn this ship ar
ound’.
When I ponder this question a bit further, I am thinking about the worldwide climate action strikes that are being led by youth across the globe. Mmm, is the education system doing something right and is setting a base from which the youth are launching and taking matters into their own hands? Or, are the youth leading the change and the education system will have to follow? For whatever reasons, it is obvious that ‘hey hey ho ho the old system of education has got to go!!’
