One half of photo is a child playing on an ipad, the other half is a child playing with muddy hands

Human centred education

What skills and knowledge do our children need to thrive in an unpredictable and ever changing world?

– By Sophia Hunt


Childhood today is demanding. Since the late 1980s, rapid tech advancement has led to ever-increasing time spent indoors, particularly for children. There is overwhelming evidence that less time in nature affects an individual’s psychological and physical well-being and that’s before the advent of omnipresent social media and smartphones.

The mainstream curriculum continues to place an emphasis on heavily standardised testing, rote memorisation, less time outdoors, and is eagerly introducing tech in the classroom from an early age. We are already seeing that the number of children in mental health crises has reached record levels, as reported to The Guardian by Young Minds charity which analysed NHS data in the summer of 2023. 

Numerous studies prove that the relationship between brain development and gross motor skills is intricately linked. We also know from ongoing research that daylight and time in nature benefits mental health by improving our circadian rhythm, and no amount of research can communicate to us more than holding up a mirror to our own selves – to observe the increasing pull that modern life and technology have in our own lives.

It is obvious that our mental and physical health, connection to the present and each other, as well as our attention span, is decreasing with our tablets and smartphones constantly at hand.

 

Therefore, at the precipice of an impending technical revolution and with our children racing, faster than ever toward their adulthood, we ask ourselves…


How are we affecting our children’s intellectual and physical development when mainstream education prioritises children sitting down inside for the majority of the day using screens?

Is current education helping or hindering our children’s mental health today?

When our children enter the job market in the decades to follow, will their education have given them the necessary skills to succeed in the age of artificial intelligence?

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, arguably the most successful and innovative tech figures in recent history rarely allowed their children to play with the very products they helped create. It is no secret that many parents working for pioneering tech companies in Silicon Valley have chosen to send their children to Steiner Waldorf schools where technology is introduced in the classroom at a far later stage.

In today’s digital era, where information is readily available, it is already becoming clear that future-proof careers that will survive AI will require human skills that machines cannot replicate. Skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. 



Whilst we are unable to see or even understand the unique challenges our children face in the future, we hope that at Nant-y-Cwm we can give them the best chance of success, by providing an environment that promotes their mental and physical health at every stage of development and nurturing a capacity to think critically and creatively.

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