“Much of education is oriented toward making a living
rather than making a LIFE.”
Dr. Walsh

The topic of education has come up a lot in my conversations lately and I think it’s one that deserves a lot more attention. It is important to mention that I don’t have children so most of what I have to say about education as I know it today is based on my own experience going to school and what I have briefly heard others talk about the school system today. 

I went to primary and secondary school in Colombia and I loved it. My memories and experiences are all positive. I have to confess that the main reason I loved it was not because of the topics of the classes but it was mainly about the social experiences I was having. I loved the group of friends I had, the spot we made “our spot” and called The Throne, I loved lunch time, I hated Physical Education but I loved that I had an agreement with the teacher to keep track of the list of attendees, I loved waiting for the bus early in the morning because it meant I got to see and talk to other friends that were waiting for their bus (there was also a dog that used to come out with her lunch bag in her mouth to wait for the bus to take her to school! It was the cutest thing and of course my day was already made at 7am when this happened) I loved riding in the bus because it was an opportunity to talk or listen to music in my iPod and well the list can go on but if you asked me about my classes and assignments I have almost cero memories of them.

I have heard that most Americans don’t have the same experience or memories of going to school. But, this post is not about that (it does make me wonder though).

I came back from visiting my family in Colombia a couple days ago and I was able to have a conversation about education with one of my cousins. The topic came up after her son, who is 9 years old, told us that he had used chat GPT to enhance my uncles’ speech for my Grandma’s 90th birthday. Her son was also the person that put together the video during the event with messages from family and friends that didn’t assist the dinner. 

As someone that has only used AI once, I’m not very familiar with the possibilities with Chat GPT and if I have to be honest I was initially more afraid of it than I was excited about it. But, talking to my cousin and seeing her son interact with us and talk about chat GPT made me connect the dots with other thoughts I’ve had about education. I remember watching a documentary in which Malcolm Gladwell talks about education and how our schooling system has been in place since the industrial revolution, reflecting many of the systems that factories put in place in their operations like the bell every-time a class or assignment is over, the schedule, the focus on specific topics and more. 

This means that our schooling system has been in place for about 300 years or more! This knowledge together with the fact that I personally didn’t enjoy my classes going to school because there was always a focus on the grade I got more than learning something that I was truly interested in makes me really excited about the possibilities for kids today which also translates into the possibilities for humanity in the future. 

I’m someone that believes and trusts in the cycles and events of the past to give us the best perspective for the future. And, I think it’s safe to say that having a similar experience for over 300 years for something that is the foundation of humanity is finally due for a change. Everything else around us is evolving, I mean ever since the iPhone came around our whole lives have drastically changed, how is it possible that our education system is still the same?

So, this brings me to why I think -if used properly- AI, together with personal and spiritual growth could drastically change the way we have been approaching work and as the quote says… focusing on making a living could finally transform into actually making a life. 

I think that most of us can agree that our childhood was focused more on checking boxes and having a very specific result, aka a grade. There is not a lot of exploration outside these possibilities because many times after we go to school our afternoons and even weekends are filled with more assignments. So, in general even from our early years as human beings we have been trained to be busy trying to achieve one single outcome (the grade). We have celebrated and rewarded arriving at one specific goal “out there” and for the most part the path getting there hasn’t been fun, and in fact this approach force us to believe that there must be something wrong with us because we cannot meet this goal and because we don’t even enjoy the process of getting there.

The one thing I have heard the most (in this education topic) about chat GPT is helping children do their assignments and homework. And I believe this is actually a gift and an obvious sign that it is time to use our human creativity to re-design and focus our approach to education. As someone that believes that we are spiritual beings living a human experience my brain and heart are dancing thinking of the possibilities that a change like this can bring to us. There is an opportunity here to stop focusing on an “outside reward”, on the idea of “one size fits all”, on one path or one way, we finally have the opportunity to take a journey inside and find out more about who we really are.

This new tool, this new technology, this new season for our world is showing us the importance of knowing ourselves and knowing our individual potential. Our kids could finally have the time and freedom to explore in their unique ways, to dig deep in the pureness of their soul and allow this one to guide them to show them their gifts and inclinations are here for a reason, and that gift can serve humanity in an incredibly positive way.

As adults we have the power to transform our fear of this new technology and instead use it for the good of all. Our fearful thoughts are only going to allow us to see the possibility of disaster but our hopeful thoughts are going to show us the possibility of expansion and evolution rooted in love and guided by our soul showing us once and for all that we are human beings and not human doings.

love, Nat.