Modern education and why teachers are paid peanuts and mentors get the gold

~ 3 minute read ~

Modelling the original method of education creates the optimal path of education.

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The original method would have looked something like this:

The young male is born into the hunter gather group. 20 or 30 males and females. That is all. Hunter-gathers.

It is 25,000 years ago.

Destined to become a hunter, at birth their learning begins.

The new born male child knows nothing of the men's hunter activities. They witness the regular coming and going from his presence. They smell the new, different, smells each time they are near him again. Adrenaline tainted sweat, mud, animals and their blood.

As a toddler around the camp the young males witness the men preparing their tools of craft. Knives, pouches, spears, bows, arrows, rope, twine. They watch them carrying them away, beyond the camp. They witness animals coming back into the camp, strung up on poles carried between the men. They watch the animals prepared for eating, but know nothing of its capture. Only how it tastes. They listen to the hunting stories around the campfire at night, and wonder what it means. They play with broken tool bits, scraps of leather, broken arrows. Their elders, now too old to hunt, show them how to play and tell long, tall tales of great hunts from the past.

The early years are all about play. They makes pretend bows and arrows, pretend knives from sticks and stones. Running and playing with the others of similar age and sex. They play with the animals within their reach, a squirrel, a rat, the dogs and cats of the camp. They play based on the stories they hear and what they can imagine.

They become bold, and start to follow the male hunters further a away from the camp on each hunting visit. Their world begins to take shape. Still in their imagination as they retreat back to the safety and security of their mothers in the camp.

Without speaking, the tribe knows it is time. Members of the hunting team take on mentor roles for the more advanced youths. Shown in detail they are about tool preparation, knife sharpening and arrow making. Told they are about how to hunt rabbit. What tracking a deer means. Taught they are about how to make traps, how to make rope from vines, how to hold a spear and a knife when running. How to roll when falling.

Then it starts. One day one or two or a handful of youths go with the hunting team on their first hunt. One or more for each mentor. Then they witness for the first time all they have heard and imagined for many years. They learn fast. Tracking, setting traps, stalking, killing, preparing their prize for the journey home. Their mentor watches them learn. Guides them through their own action. With patience or without. The style will differ.

For the first time the youths see it all, it all makes sense. They get it. They are far from masters.

The move from mentee into trained hunter is fast. In a matter of a few trips they are tracking, striking, killing and preparing themselves.

They learn about the stars, the seasons. What animals are best in what seasons, fish, rabbit, boar, monkeys. They learn the importance of protecting the lifestyle of their prey. Their habitat. So there is enough food each season. So there is always enough.

Over time they become proficient. They become masters. Then in time, they themselves mentor the next generation.

True education. True humanity. Effective society.

The modern version education is a dim, distant cousin of its predecessor. Vasty inferior. Inadequate. I won't speak of it again.

To make modern education work is to find a mentor. One who is using and practicing upon the knowledge accumulated. The data you are busy acquiring. A mentor is a master of the craft under study.

Teachers in school are useful only to access to information. Their competition is stiff. Google does this for free. That's why tacher payment is so little. They know nothing of practical application and their competition is a computer. Nethertheless, respect for teachers is important. Get and absorb what they teach. What they bring to you. Combine it into your life experience.

A mentor is the key. The person that you observe more than you listen to. They hold the keys to the vault that holds the gold. That is why they receive payment in kind, in gold. They know the path to travel after the information is onboard. To turn information into knowledge. To turn theory into practice. They turn it into reality. They are reality.

@jeremiahjosey