What does a butterfly in Brazil have to do with Education in China?

Last March 29, 2021, the Ever Given ship got unstuck from the Suez Canal after six days blocking it. This passage blockage cost the world billions of dollars in losses a day. The world's accumulated life loss to the Coronavirus was almost three million people on the same date. The virus was first transmitted to humans at the end of 2019 in Wuhan, China. In 2011, a Tsunami in Japan disrupted the automotive industry, affecting the economy worldwide. The world is a nut, indeed. What happens on one side will affect everyone, everywhere. Are students ready for this reality? My conclusion is: not really.

Let us go back in time to understand the impact of these life-changing moments better. In 1961, MIT's meteorology professor Edward Lorenz ran a weather pattern simulation on a simple digital computer for the second time on the day. He decided to round off some decimals for the thousandth decimal place, expecting to speed up the simulation while getting the same results. This tiny alteration resulted in a weather scenario utterly different from the first simulation.

The chaos theory was born: small causes can have significant effects. Professor Lorenz explained his argument with the story of a butterfly flapping its wings in South America, resulting in tiny alterations in the atmosphere and consequently influencing the formation of a hurricane in Texas. It is impossible to know all variables affecting a non-linear system and precisely predict what will happen. The slightest change can lead to an entirely different future. The term "butterfly effect," which refers to Professor Lorenz's chaos theory, comes from the graphic he plotted after getting the simulation results. It looked like a butterfly.

Psychologists started using the butterfly effect later to metaphor how tiny details in one's life can have an impactful effect, for good or bad. Small decisions we make or events that happen in our lives may change our future forever. Extending this concept to education, the tiniest decisions we make and the actions we take in schools have a significant impact on students' lives and the world's future.

Now imagine telling learners precisely what to do each moment of the day for 12 years. It builds conformism instead of uniqueness. It kills initiative, creativity, and action, a daily dose of butterfly effect that will cripple the rest of their lives. And when their ship gets stuck in the canal, meaning life problems surge, they have no idea what to do. No lectures, textbooks, or education apps in the traditional education system will prepare students to make the right decisions when the ship gets stuck, a deadly virus affects humans, or a natural disaster happens.  

Following someone else's orders without thinking becomes natural for students, as they practice it for so long during school years. Welcome to the education conveyer belt! Students end up believing that studying hard, working hard, being righteous, having a family, buying a house, having a nice vacation here and there, and eventually retiring is the only way to become prosperous, happy, and peaceful. They are afraid of having the initiative to do anything outside of the status quo or pursuing their dreams because they will be judged for it and, if it is misaligned to the instructions they received, they are labeled as a failure. More often than it should, students who are non-conformist with these norms are medicated with drugs such as Ritalin to go through school like a "normal child."

When Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus first used the term VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world back in 1987, they had no idea what children would go through in 2020. Students must be prepared for this VUCA world to predict and avoid issues such as the ship in the Suez Canal, the Coronavirus spread, or a natural disaster. These issues affect the world as a whole. One good decision someone makes on one side will benefit the planet.

In my book Becoming Einstein's Teacher: Awakening the Genius in Your Students, I discuss in length how we move from dictating what to learn to coach how to learn. I share tiny steps we can take and pave the way to enable learning to its fullest. Yes, it is possible to create a butterfly effect with education to benefit the world today and tomorrow.

Thank you for the butterfly picture, Chris F.