As a high school student, I recall my whole perception of education being toppled by the saying, “the mind is not like a bucket to be filled but a flame to be lit”, or something like that. What I understood was that this meant the mind was like a substance that could easily catch fire. Therefore if we are introduced to an idea, there need not necessarily be follow up but that idea should grow within us and guide us to explore the full domain of knowledge related to the idea. Therefore this puts the inception point of knowledge as a very paramount step in our understanding of the knowledge.
Now from that I have developed a theory that if the mind is as such and looking at substances of different levels of flammability then a correlation might exist too in terms of our understanding as human beings. Consider 3 substances; water, paraffin and petrol. Water at code 0, paraffin at 1 and petrol at 2. Now water comes into the set because even if we don’t consider it to be flammable its function affects flammability. From basic chemistry it can’t ignite and hence at the lowest code. Still my basic chemistry tells me that petrol is more flammable than paraffin.
Now getting back to the core of the theory. The theory follows that at different points in our lives we are in those different codes or at least different people can be classified in any of those three codes.
The theory further suggests usually the code is inversely proportional to age. For instance I take the example of young kids. It’s so easy to teach them a new concept irrespective of whatever domain it is in. Especially for foreign languages, it’s easy for them to understand. This is because their thirst for new things is insatiable. They feel that they have a world to conquer. From what I understand about the developed world, this is where they beat us. Young members of such a society are introduced to the rich bodies of knowledge while at code 2. This means they have no distraction so amass as much as they can. I presume that this stage goes all the way an up to late teens, that is being at code 1.
Now looking back at us here in Kenya and many other developing countries, we spent all our teen life as high school students burdened with eons old curriculum. By the time we are introduced to any form of specialization our enthusiasm is gone. All we want is to gain enough knowledge to get us into a field that will earn us enough to survive or be higher the social hierarchy than our peers.
At code 1 we slow down a little bit. This is the point where creativity comes in. We have gathered enough knowledge and are aware of how to work with it without boundaries. We strive to use the knowledge to create knowledge, come up with new ideas. We have specialized into certain disciplines. A person at code 1 concentrates at what they loved most while at code 2 and strives to contribute to that body of knowledge. This is what leads to inventions.
On academic circles; well all is based on such circles, it’s the period of senior undergraduate to graduate and post graduate studies. The need for solving an existing problem makes thesis content or a research breakthrough leading to a doctorate award.
On the contrary however, we are misled and hence have skewed priorities. The need to do a master’s degree for instance an MBA is not to be a better manager but to gain promotion at work. The statement “papers don’t lie” no longer holds water as unethical means have been devised to obtain them.
At code 0, distractions come up big time. Recall water cannot put off fire from paraffin or anything petroleum for that matter. When in this code zone one has amassed all the knowledge that they need and have become experts in their field. This has made them rich owing to the idea that instead of chasing money, money has successfully followed them.
Borrowing from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, now that all their needs have been fulfilled its time to find self-actualization. Some will get into politics, some will simply be appointed as board of directors in multinationals etc. They only offer talks at seminars and conferences, they are C.E.O’s ! at code 0 one is still a professional they were at code 1 but other duties of planning , directing and controlling have been delegated to them such that it becomes very hard to practice regularly. A case in point is a professor who is a vice-chancellor at a Kenyan public university.
This theory is not primarily about Kenya but based on universal understanding of how we approach knowledge as human beings. It’s an important pillar that should be considered in curriculum development as it maximizes on human potential, one of the very vital resources in any organization. Although a draft, this theory makes a lot sense as it based on real life observations. I would welcome any comments and suggestions.