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What is Education?

An Emoji Experiment

November 13, 2016
What do you see in this picture?
 
 
We see our education system.
Rows of students packed in classrooms and conforming to the system.

Everyone has an opinion on education and what an ideal education system should be. Since we are an education technology startup, we thought it would be interesting to capture the different perspectives that students have on education.

The Emoji Experiment
We have been conducting a series of social experiments by printing posters filled with expressionless emoji and plastering them at our booth whenever we participate in education conventions, fairs and exhibitions. Then, we simply observe people’s behaviours.

Most of the time, visitors will simply just at the poster as if it were a piece of art. Some visitors even start asking what the “answer” is, thinking that it some sort of quiz. These uninteresting traits are typical of teenagers and adults. Things only start to get interesting when children visit our booth.

“Can I draw on a face?”

The first person to ask this is always a child. A child who does not conform to the notion that posters are for display, not to be defaced. Whenever a “rebel” child sets a precedent, more children follow and start drawing on the poster. A perfect contrast between the rebel and the conformist — the leader and the followers.

Our education system transforms uninhibited kids into conservative students, shelving their creativity in return for comfort zones of uniformity. We cannot expect to raise innovators if we neither accept nor nurture the intrinsic rebellious and non-conformist nature of creative thought. Groundbreaking innovations have changed the way we live our lives and interact with the things around us. These game-changing ideas are almost always disruptive to our conformist ways. Coincidence?

It’s time to liberate children from this conformity.

Curious to see the end result?

A barrage of self-expression. This is what kids are. Unique, creative individuals.

Let’s reflect on our education system and think about how we can amplify their individuality instead of robbing it from them.


Spread this emoji experiment worldwide! Drop us a messageif you are interested to get a soft copy of the poster :)