Certainly things change quickly these days…
Faster than a person can catch up with.
This is what I was thinking when my eight-year-old son was able to change the internet settings by himself, responding when asked that he used YouTube to follow the steps of a tutorial to speed up the internet to play peacefully.
We did not have this level of luxury in getting information quickly in previous times, that is for sure.
This was a simple daily situation, but it made me wonder what education will look like in the future, as these children have the ability to access any information in the blink of an eye, so what is the actual role of school now? And how do you convince a child to sit for 45 minutes to learn about something they can obtain in less than seconds?
My interest in education began on one beautiful evening in 2019 in my city, Riyadh, where by chance I met in a restaurant on Imam Turki Al-Awali Road, with a person I cherish for his great influence in my professional journey after God and my parents. We were exchanging conversation, and I was at a crossroads looking for a new challenge that would ignite my passion for the coming years. At that moment, he asked me a question that no one had dared to ask before: “What is your goal in life? And what do you live for?” It felt like the question awakened me deeply. I had not thought about it so clearly, as I was too focused on work and money, having some goals accomplished, and some pending.
I replied hastily: “I want to leave a mark that people will talk about for a century.” He laughed and said: “I have the mark, but I want to make a difference in education and develop its methods.” And from here began our deep discussion.
I told him: “I am with you, but how can we change education? My educational experience was full of challenges, as the focus was not on how to learn, but on the quantity of information, and I felt frustrated by its lack of creativity and meaning. I didn't learn much from my school, but from various sources outside it.”
He replied: “The world is changing rapidly, but the education system hasn’t changed in more than a hundred years. It’s time to be bold and rethink.” At that moment, I felt motivated and said to him: “I am with you completely.”
Since that day, I began my journey to make a real change in education and how to simplify it and make it a unique experience that aligns with the spirit of the times. Learning is a light that guides the paths of life and takes us out of the darkness of ignorance, and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Whoever follows a path seeking knowledge, Allah makes easy for him a path to Paradise.” Knowledge is what makes us a nation that builds and elevates its ideas and minds.
The poet was right when he said:
Knowledge builds houses without pillars ** and ignorance demolishes the house of honor and generosity.
This is the story of a person who decided to make a real difference in the field of education.
And this is a short story about what happens when you set a clear goal in front of you to reach it…
A story titled "Course."