By :- Md. Nasir Khan,
Kwakta Sabal Leikai P.O./P.S.: Moirang Certified Trainer:
Early day’s life of human population was dependent of hunting and foraging. Their life was uncertain as they couldn’t decide when they would get their next meal. They have to travel from place to place in search of food. Many a time they would die in masses due to starvation. The current archaeological evidence indicates that anatomically modern humans would have existed roughly 200,000 – 300,000 years. So, for so many such years humans struggled and used their energy only to get more foods and reproduce. Historians hinted that with such mode of living the earth could support about 10 million people till 10,000 – 15,000 years ago. There was no evidence of agriculture. What do you think would be the education of those days? Children of those days were trained to learn to hunt or foraged for food. The people think primitively, nomadically, and could not imagine themselves to think beyond food. They are bound to migrate frequently.
AGRARIAN
The Neolithic Revolution or rather the Agricultural Revolution, started around 10,000 B.C. in the Fertile Crescent, a boomerang-shaped region of the Middle East where humans first took up farming. By the end of the last Ice Age, some 14000 years ago, the earth had entered a warming trend. Some Scientists theorize this climate change as the reason for the birth of Agricultural Revolution, while others opined the intellectual advancement of human mind. This was how human civilization began. This is considered to be the first global ‘Revolution of the Mind’ after the indigenous, aboriginal and local flowerings of culture. During that time we thought, primarily, agriculturally. Children were educated to be labourers. The worker was a physical labourer on the farm.
INDUSTRIAL AGE
The Agricultural Revolution was then superseded, a few hundred years ago, by the Industrial Revolution. Everything changed during the Industrial Revolution, which began around 1750. The story of the Industrial Revolution begins on the small island of Great Britain. Watt’s steam engine made energy supply more efficient and reliable than ever before. It was fundamental to kick-starting the Industrial Revolution. The Elementary Education Act 1870 allowed all children within the United Kingdom to have access to education. Education was not made compulsory until 1880 since many factory owners feared the removal of children as a source of cheap labor. However, with the simple Mathematics and English Skills the children were acquiring, factory owners had workers who could read and make measurements and therefore contribute more to the factory. During that time we thought, primarily, industrially. Children were educated to be labourers in the industrial-military complex. The education system evolved to produce ‘food’ for industry.
INFORMATION AGE
The Information Age began around the 1970s. It is also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age. This age is also known as the Age of Entrepreneurship. There were huge growth of Entrepreneurship and began setting up and running companies. This era brought about a time period in which people could access information and knowledge easily. There were many different inventions that came about because of the Information Age, one of which was the computer. The Internet allowed people to access information with the touch of a button. Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are several important people of the Information Age. Their creation of World Wide Web, first effective personal computer called the Apple 1 and Microsoft
changes the way human think and works. We think informationally and technologically, and children were taught to be information technologists. It has changed the people, technology, science, economics, culture and even the way people think, as I mentioned earlier. Now tell me at what age we are in? Write your thoughts on a separate piece of paper. The most common answers to this question are: Information, Technological, Computer, Digital, The last! If we are in this Age then such thinking and education will be appropriate. However, if we think we are in this Age but are not, then such thinking and education will be inappropriate. In a field survey done during the last 3 – 4 years, the vast majority of tens of thousands of government officials, professionals, business people, and educators at all levels, students, and members of the general public felt that we are currently at this age. As many as 90% of people believe we are in this Age, and thus the world is currently thinking predominantly in the Information/Technological mode. We are not in the Information Age Now! The Information Age provided us with the greatest cause of global stress the planet has ever known: Information Overload. For example in 2007 alone, the human brain, according to research by Xerox, produced 281 Exabyte’s of information. This is equivalent to 15 encyclopaedias laid side by side, on which 15 more encyclopaedia are placed, this process continuing until each of the 15 piles reaches the 93 million miles to the sun. The worker in this age was an information/ technology worker. The education system was encouraged to shift to a more information/ technology base.
KNOWLEDGE AGE
This Age began in 1990. The Knowledge Age is a new, advanced form of capitalism in which knowledge and ideas are the main source of economic growth (more important than land, labour, money, or other ‘tangible resources). In the Knowledge Age, change, not stability, is given. In this Age, we thought creatively, innovatively, and adaptively to be able to see the ‘BIG Picture Level’. The Tsunami of Data originated since the Information Age that leads to global stress: Information Overload, keeps rising incredibly. To deal with this Information Overload, the human brain devised the next revolution of the mind: the Knowledge Age. In this Age information was clustered into meaningful chunks in order to try to contain and manage the increasing tsunami of data. This Age gave rise to such new concepts as Knowledge Management, and such new positions in national and multi-national businesses and governments as Knowledge Manager and, on many Boards, Director of Knowledge Management. It should be observed at this point that every Age that is superseded by a new Age still remains with us. The Agricultural, Industrial and Information Ages are and will always remain a part of our societies, and it keeps developing. In the Knowledge Age we thought knowledgably. Children were taught to become Knowledge Workers.
AGE OF INTELLIGENCE
The Age of Intelligence is believed to have started from 2007. At an international conference on creativity and thinking in Singapore in February 2008, a number of Directors of Knowledge Management declared that knowledge management was not really working as well as had been anticipated and hoped. Why? Because there is something far more important to manage than knowledge: The Manager of Knowledge. If the manager of knowledge does not know how to manage itself, it will miss manage whatever knowledge it has. The far more important to manage than knowledge, is to manage the manager of that knowledge. And what is the manager of that knowledge?
Your Brain! Your brain manages knowledge by the use and application of its multiple intelligences. It is these that must now be nurtured and used as they are designed to be used. We are thus now entering the Age of Intelligence. This fact was confirmed at the 14th International Conference on Thinking (2009) by the Y. B. Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled Bin Nordin, Minister of Higher Education, Malaysia, by Professors Edward de Bono, Prof Datuk Dr Nik Mustapha R. Abdullah, Vice Chancellor, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Tony Buzan, Inventor of Mind Maps® and Howard Gardner, and by the 2,000 international delegates of that conference. At the Opening ceremonies it was officially declared by Tony Buzan that:‘We are now in the Age of Intelligence. That the 21st century is the Century of the Brain, and the third millennium will henceforth be known as Millennium of the Mind.’ ‘ There is general global consensus on the Revolutions of the Mind during the 10,000 year history of human civilization.’ In the Age of Intelligence we will think (at last!) Intelligently. In this new and dawning Age, children of all ages will and are beginning to be taught to become Intelligence Workers by becoming Mentally Literate – focusing on creativity and innovation, communication, service, learning how to learn, memory, creativity, speed reading, Mind Mapping, knowledge of the brain and its application, ethics, knowledge of the multiple intelligence, self-management, mindfulness, full use of our cognitive skills, and all forms of thinking including analytical, strategic, lateral, creative, meta- and radiant. Mental literacy will be defined as being similar to normal verbal literacy and numerical literacy. Verbal literacy means understanding the alphabet of letters, words and language and being able to juggle with those appropriately. Numerical literacy means understanding the alphabet of numbers and being able to juggle with the infinite combinations of those. Mental literacy means understanding the alphabet of the brain’s physical structures and that of the brain’s cognitive and learning functions.‘All students and teachers will become mentally literate at this age. The classroom will be thinking rooms; schools will be thinking schools, producing thinking graduates for their intelligent nations and intelligent world.’
It should be noted that when one age is superseded by another, the former age continues. Thus the Agricultural, Industrial, Information and Knowledge Ages are still with us. The advantages of our current superseding age is that finally we will be able to think intelligently about Knowledge, Technology, Information, Industry and Agriculture – a type of thinking that has been solely lacking, as our environmental, economic, educational, business, health, crime, corruption, conflicts and wars, and social irresponsibility performances indicate.
(To be Contd……………….)
