What about changing our educational system?

Probably this is one of the most difficult topic I have ever written about. But I think it is quite interesting to rethink the way we are teaching our students.

First of all I would like to explain that, in my opinion, education means future. Not past, nor present, but future. I mean, when we are teaching something, what we are really doing is offering someone a new way towards knowledge. It would be stupid to understand this amazing profession only as a way of understanding the world we know, instead of inviting others to change this world we think we live in.

Any important step that our society has made, it has been as a result of someone's interest. Someone who wanted to help in some way, someone who wanted to go further, whatever the risk or effort.Probably I could be considered a dreamer. And probably I am. But anyway, I am just one of these persons that truly believe that things could be always better, that people could be also happier, and that this positive attitude could be able to change everyone else's life. If everyone that surrounds you would be focused on improving your quality of life, no matter the reason; maybe then, we all would enjoy life in a better way.

Obviously I am a dreamer, not a fool. That's the reason why I am not thinking about this ideal situation as a possible reality. However I am pretty sure that this is just my reality, the one that all my relatives and friends have helped me to create. But it has not to be the reality that our children will live. We have the amazing opportunity of changing this for them, the opportunity of creating the tools they could need to create their own wonderful reality. Just as our families tried to improve our lives, it is our turn to keep improving theirs. It is a very simple way of thinking which has an enormous potential.

Unfortunately my english is not as good as I would like it to be. Maybe you are asking yourself why I have decided to write this post about such an amazing topic, in english. The answer is very simple. First of all, it would not be fair to write it in spanish because I got inspired abroad, during my last trips around Europe. On the other hand, I truly believe on writing as a way of expressing myself, hoping that people will just focus on the message I am trying to share, no matter which mistakes I could have, in order to understand it, make it theirs, and use it to improve what I said or did. Again, I don't think about writing as an opportunity to send a closed and perfect message that people need to read. Writing, like teaching, it is just a way of sharing some knowledge or knowhow with others who probably are going to be able to give you the opportunity of learning something else. This is a trip, where every step is part of the journey, as simple and fundamental as the previous one, and hopefully, as the next one.

The reason why I am worried about this matter is because I had the amazing opportunity of being at the educational system as a professor for the first time in my life, and this great experience made me understand how important this process is, and above all, how important it should be. Besides, I could share my thoughts with an old friend whose educational and cultural background was completely different from mine. I have always believed that education should have been changed. I always thought that education was not about knowledge, but about passion. Not about teaching what to learn, but about teaching how to learn, how to find our interests and skills in order to be able to reinforce them.

Sometimes we need to create some general contents to be used as a reference or guide for students. But it is professors' responsibility to adapt them to every student, to understand what they need in order to feel themselves special, and automatically help them to become special. This way of teaching is about passion, so the more passionate our professors are, the more attracted and passionate our students will be. There should be no room for apathy, negativity or embarrassment. We have to do it this way even when some students won't believe in us, or some colleagues won't be able to follow us or simply respect us for what we are trying to do.

During this experience as professor I had, just a few days ago, one of the students told me something I will never forget. After explaining my way of understanding my profession and the way of teaching it, he decided to come and tell me:

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed your conference. I would like to say that I like the way you use architecture to make people's life better, to bring them good architecture, but I want you to know that for us you have used your architecture to bring us hope.

If you read this carefully, you will understand why it became so important for me. I don't know if he was right. Maybe he was just trying to be polite. In fact, to be honest, I do not understand this situation as a personal success or achievement. But after thinking about it, I realized that he could not be more right about what he said, because it was this experience, including his words, what make me feel hopeful about education and future architecture. It was his way of thinking and his braveness about sharing it, what brought me hope.

So, these words are a kind of tribute to these students who made me believe, who remind me how important this matter should be, and how amazing could be architecture in the future if we believe in those who will come later to improve everything we could be able to do. This is not a competition where everyone else should lose in order to let us win. Instead, this competition is about encouraging everyone to be better, and enjoy with them the results of this general victory.

Please, don't share our misery with the students because they have to be the ones who should change it, not the ones who suffer it. Maybe not all of us are able to create great projects that will inspire the future generations, but for sure, we all have the opportunity of helping others to do it.

Thank you very much to everyone that helped me to understand everything in this way. I am very sorry about my english, but hopefully you will be able to get these main ideas I was not able to explain.

My flight is almost finished. It is time to stop writing and keep thinking. Thanks for being there.

Alvaro Fernandez.