Jul 2, 2020
The original visionaries who established the modern education system in the early 20th Century were following and expanding upon a vision of the founders of the USA—an educated population is essential for the success of a democracy and for a fruitful life.
What became of this education system?
Hi This is Gary.
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Did the system you grow up in seem like the one I did? It was more like you were groomed to sit still, follow orders, give back the answer the teacher wanted, don’t make waves.
It was designed originally to give just enough basic skills in English and math so that mostly boys could fill the slots in the new Industrial Age. Girls, I guess, were expected to be home with babies, laundry, and cooking. See the 1950s TV sitcom The Life of Reilly about a couple of guys working for an airplane manufacturer.
Later, some boys needed more skills in accounting and engineering so that they could fill the bureaucratic slots in the larger enterprises. Check out My Three Sons where the father was an engineer at an airplane manufacturing company.
Me? Even at an early age, I wanted to know Why? How do you know that? I went to school, graduated high school and then university. However, most of my education to this day is outside of academia. That microscope I got at about 10 that opened up a whole new world I was living with and didn’t know. Later I discovered model rockets. I learned something about trigonometry so that we could calculate how high the rocket went. Or when I discovered electronics. And circuits. At 15 I could look at a schematic and tell at a glance a tuner circuit from an amplifier circuit, and do the math. And antennas. Calculating band and frequency and length of antenna.
So, I understand Albert Einstein’s comments about the importance of curiosity and imagination. Far more important than formal learning. Seek out those who question and dream and wonder and sketch out what might be.
This leads to the idea of lateral thinking. Disruption to a market often comes from out of nowhere. Currently I’m studying Internet of Things (the current buzz) and a variety of software applications used in industry. But I stumbled into looking at all the possibilities of 5G cellular technology. Thanks to an HPE company, Aruba, I’ve seen how companies from totally outside the space could, if they have vision, come up with business models riffing off the technology to turn significant parts of the industrial software ecosystem on its head.
I may be wrong—I’m just as good as any other human at predicting the future, as in not. But the thought exercise is worth it.
This podcast is brought to you with support from Inductive Automation. Discover a whole new view with Ignition 8 by Inductive Automation. Packed with features for the modern control system like unlimited licensing, high-powered tags, and a mobile-first flexible design environment for all devices, Ignition 8 supports enterprises of any size. See all ignition has to offer at https://inductiveautomation.com/ .