I just read a headline in a major German newspaper: “Lack of communication in families threatens childrens’ development”.
They described the trend that families spend more time in front of computers and TV, and less time talking to each other.

That reminded me of a feeling that I’ve had for a long time. In both school and university I had the feeling that most of the time was wasted by being fed or memorizing information.

In my opinion, it should not the most important goal of any educative institution to transfer knowledge. I mean, any kid with internet can learn quite accurately about anything these days!

What we need, children and adults alike, is a platform to talk to other people about this information. We want to learn about other people’s ideas and views, criticize them and build on them.

The main purpose of a school should be to facilitate this process. It seems to be very few that do that enough.