Power of the mind

Education is one of the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals); it can also be leverage to achieve all other SDGs (including gender equality and human rights) if it is targeted at broadening the minds of students.

Preparing students for working life is disastrous

New research divulges that in the nature of mankind, man is prone to experience fatigue after about eight hours of strenuous work either in physical effort or otherwise. Can those eight hours work save or help in achieving the SDGs? Whether physical work is done or work of the mind, fatigue will always occur. How far can a working life help in achieving our aims? Therefore, a broad life for student would become an indispensable panacea because its effect will still be felt even after the assumed ‘fatigue period’.

The broad mind of students can solve world perturbing challenges. Can their working life solve those challenges? For instance, one of the excruciating challenges in the world is hunger. The production of food in the world is generally insufficient relative to the exploding population, despite improvements in technology. If preparing for a working life should be the only part of the educational system, hunger that would kill a large percent of the population because the population is increasing rapidly everyday and survival cannot rely only on physical effort but by the mental effort that is innovation.

Nelson Mandela said that “education is the most powerful weapon for changing the world”. If students are to be trained in the working way, this anticipation would be in vain, because students educated to only a working way cannot cope outside their modeled working life, thereby are not able to change the world. “Information tells you what is available but revelation uncovers what is not available, and how to possess both those ones that are available and the one that is not” – Folarin Oladele. Preparing students for a working life is giving them information, but broadening their minds activates a revelation in them that can help to save the world.

In a practical sense, poverty, hunger, poor power supply, poor governance, environmental challenges and various sustainable development goals cannot be accomplished through physical effort (that is the working way) but can only become a reality through the power of the mind, via various inventions and innovations.

It was also discovered that educating students to broaden their mind would also cover the aspects of their working life automatically. Once they possess a broad mind, their working life becomes easier, stress-free and sustainable. Some researchers also believe that once a broad mind is activated, then the working life is partially alleviated.

The secret of ancient scientists is their mind

Students still depend on old scientific works and theories; students are still being taught the old modus operandi which is termed education in the world today. This is to prepare them for working life. If those scientists had not worked with a broad mind, a comfortable working system would not have been created for this generation. The current system is already failing and the working life would soon be no more, that is why a broad mind is needed to help the world. Evidence is seen as governments have been failing to provide employment, little or no capital for entrepreneur to start a business amongst other problems. But the power of the mind can help proffer solutions to this and also create wealth from limited resources under severe conditions. Graduates can no longer defend their certificates because their mind is not broadening to various perspective of life.

The use of the internet has expedited the dissemination of information, space engineering and satellite technology has also improved the security of lives and properties, various Civil Engineering structures have also made life easier and conducive for all in the 21^st century. They were all spurred by education because various inventors underwent the process of learning before they could fabricate their ideas into reality. Therefore, innovative/creative education would assist to achieve our dream of a better future for all, if students are innovative in their various fields like the old scientists and engineers.

Scientist, researchers and engineers in the past have contributed to world evolution because they were all educated in their various fields. The following educational traits were exhibited by scientists with a broad mind as free world learning, creative education, entrepreneurship education, contributor education, and passionate education which assisted them to accomplish all what they did . These were the kinds of education that helped the ancient scientists in activating the power of their mind. Those wonders and great inventions were nurtured out of the mind, not from the already existing working system. This has created a more comfortable working life: if the world settles for this working life, a more conducive one would not be fabricated.

Countries like Finland, Belgium, Qatar, Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, and Estonia are known to have the best educational systems in the world, because most of those countries’ educational system aims to broaden the minds of the students. This also helps all other sectors of those countries economically, unlike countries like Nigeria, Iran, and Libya amongst others whose economy has deteriorated due to bad educational systems and some other factors.

Why the need for a broadened mind?

Preparing students for a working life is of no meaning if jobs are unavailable and insufficient for graduates, with lots of them remaining unemployed because they were not trained with a broadened mind that would have spurred the entrepreneurial spirit in them. So, why is preparing students for employment opportunities not feasible?

Taking a critical view at Nigeria’s history, it was discovered that in the early 90s, the richest people then would acquire their wealth from the agricultural sectors. This changed over a long period of time as the military enjoyed the National Cake. This also changed again as only the educated elite like doctors or professors are being elected to a position of sovereignty. Things have revolutionized in the 21^st century so that only those that do oil business, vandalism, terrorism, hard drug business, hackers, fraudsters, kidnappers, entertainers (musicians, athletes, footballers, comedians) and politicians but through corrupt means, are guaranteed to be rich. Therefore, preparing students for a working life could be disastrous as lots of revolution and innovations have broken and would continue to break ground in coming centuries.

Innovations would be spurred as various initiatives and creativities that would eradicate hunger and poverty, enhance gender equality and reduce inequality would spring up from the mind. This will also proffer solutions to severe challenges like climate change, and economic crisis etc.

The economy of each nation is a perturbing problem, and analysis of the economy and economic theories are being taught in educational institutions to assist the world in managing the economy. With time, economists would achieve the goal of liberating the world from all the economic challenges, if the power of the mind is put to work, thereby, improving the economy and efficiency of works/workers.

A broad mind would help students to understand wider aspects of life, thereby ensuring peace. The Nigerian senate meetings, the House of Representatives and some other occasions are being turned into a state of anarchy by the so-called educated elite. School shootings in the US are caused by bullying, revenge, mental illness, impaired reasoning, various temperaments, and lack of inner peace, but were all triggered due to the current educational system. Moral education would help to eradicate terrorism and corruption in the world through the mind but a working life would not be able to help.

Conclusion

Students trained into the working life would not be able to transform or make significant impact on world development because they would be destabilized by the corrupt officials already in the system. But students with a broadened mind would be made strong on their decision to save the world despite any challenges from various angles of life.

The following attributes were also seen in students with a broad mind which would help them to achieve success: Vision, Time management, No procrastination, Planning, Extra-work, Diligence, Innovation, Focus, Courage and Confidence, Keeping record. But the reason why students prepared only for the working life always fail is because the attributes to achieve success in life are not instilled in them. They are only trained on how to achieve success in their career and not in life.