One could make the argument that our western democracies are ruled by the cognitive elite. The people whom have the easiest access to information through the format of words. By access to – I mean that they can understand the information. Because, the written or spoken word isn’t universally accessible – even if you know how to speak or read that language. The level of linguistic complexity makes it either hard or easier to understand. If the complexity is high enough – you need certain hermeneutical interpretation skills, methods or talents to access the information. The ones who have acquired these skills or methods – they often work in academia, as a bureaucrat or politician. The language which they use among themselves tend to be highly inaccessible to a large portion of the population. Of course, this isn’t simply as secretive measure – but because more complex language is more precise. The nature of their work – the scale or nuance of it – demands accuracy. However, these are also the people whom make most of the major societal decisions. Naturally, they are very biased towards the cognitive way of communicating or even the cognitive way of life. This might be problematic when these people are tasked with designing and having opinions on how schools should or ought to be structured.

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        An effect we hope to achieve with our project is to make schools – and therefor society – more equitable. Equitability – not to be confused with equality – is about fairness from an unbalanced perspective. An old German pronounce reflect this sentiment well: “I love my children equally, so I treat them differently”, because fairness isn’t equality. A pronounce – and the philosophy it echoes – are elemental to western democracies. Taxes aren’t flat in most European countries – they’re progressive, the poor and the rich don’t get the same benefits, etc. Society doesn’t inherently strive to be equal – it strives to be equitable. In schools however, equality seems to be the ruling sentiment – often on the expense of equity and fairness. Because, non-cognitive competences like social intelligence, practical problem solving, visual, emotional etc. – are being under prioritised in schools today. It’s a statement of course, but one that I believe most people will find to be true – if they look back at their fourteen-something-years at school. I would say that a school system skewed in favour of a cognitive understanding of the world – is unfair to those who have a hard or impossible time accessing and understanding the world in that manner. It is skewed to favour a specific path – a favorization of a cognitive career pursuit, that might not be fit or even feasible for everyone.

 

Therefor I envision a world where people with non-cognitive competencies are brought to the table when curriculums are being designed. In hopes that the school of the future will be a more equitable school.