There was a time when whatever their father, mother or teacher said, children sat and listened open-mouthed.

This was because they had no other access to information. Today’s children, by contrast, are not willing to listen to their parents because they are online most of the time.

Whatever you say, they Google it to check if it is true.

The mode of teaching from a textbook or using what is already available online is becoming redundant. 

Human intelligence is more than memory

Most of the education today is machine-like: acquiring information and interpreting it as knowledge.

We are biological machines, but there are synthetic machines that calculate much better than us. And with advancements in artificial intelligence, they will only get better.

A machine can only function around memory - whatever data has already been fed into it. The value of human intelligence is that we can perceive something absolutely new, which no machine can do.

A human being is not just about machine-like efficiency. A human being is about ingenuity and creativity.

Everywhere in the world, education has largely been about gathering information, passing examinations and getting a job.

So much emphasis has been placed on accumulating memory, that human intelligence is being suppressed.

Inspiration must take centre stage

Human intelligence is above memory - it can be sharpened and made incisive so that it will penetrate and explore different dimensions of life. 

Education should look at one’s overall development and enhancement. It should incorporate other dimensions of widening our horizons, creating more evolved minds, fitter bodies and better human beings.

Certain institutions may be focusing on this, but it is not happening on the scale that is needed. 

What we need is inspirational schooling so that a child does something beyond his or her limitations. If you can do something that you never thought you would do because of someone’s influence, this is inspiration.

Teachers need to provide not information but inspiration and focus, and facilitate exploration. 

Right now our idea of exploration itself has been corrupted. We think if a child gathers a certain amount of information about geography, he or she is exploring geography. No, they are only gathering memory. Memory can only inform, not transform.

Information and transformation are two different things. Information is in a book, but the soil becoming a leaf is transformation.

The significance of being human is not to be informed about the transformation, but to be able to perceive and access the transformation that is happening everywhere in the universe, and to be able to cause this transformation. 

The end of the classroom 

Today, we have the technology to communicate with each other from opposite sides of the planet. When this has become possible, change is inevitable.

Let us take a geography class as an example. The same material is being taught by geography professors in thousands of schools and universities around the world.

What is the point of doing the same work thousands of times over? It is a waste of human potential, both for the teachers and the students. 

Unfortunately, the problem with humanity has been that unless a crisis arises, most people are not willing to change. Students, teachers, and institutions all have comfort zones and they hesitate to shift gears.

But now the pandemic is hastening the change. It has brought a situation where we cannot exist if we do not change.

Yes, there is an economic and social structure to the education system, and dismantling it is not going to be easy - there will be a certain amount of chaos whenever we want to make drastic changes in our society.

But it is important that we at least create this awareness in our societies that this is the time to change.

Technologically, we must become competent to build platforms that can deliver the informative part of education.

Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, internationally renowned speaker and bestselling author. He regularly speaks at major global forums including the United Nations World Headquarters and the World Economic Forum.

He also founded Isha Vidhya, an education initiative that aims to transform the lives of rural children by providing affordable, high-quality English-language-based, computer-aided education.