Education with Blockchain

17.07.2016

There wasn’t anything resembling modern day education system in ancient times. Back then, schools provided only the knowledge strictly required to survive in contemporary society, like skills of counting, reading, writing, and other information depending on the school’s geographic location.

In ancient Greece, there was an entire concept dubbed kalokagathia, which was later incorporated in Plato’s utopist vision, and, much later, in internal policy of merry totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

The concept’s core is that a person has to be well-developed both physically and ethically. For that reason, ancient schools also offered disciplines, some of which are found in modern schools, like literature or gymnastics, but also some other ones which our education system desperately lacks, like elitist kythara courses. All other skills, should they become of need, could be obtained privately and for a fee, be it the Lyceum in Athens, or rhetorics course required for anyone seeking political career.

In ancient Rome, there was a concept dubbed ‘cursus honorum’ (the course of honor), which was a sequence of government positions one had to occupy to become a senator. No questor diplomas or aedilis certificates were in question, and, similar to everything else in ancient politics, it all was closed for girls. However, what is important here, this career path required no documents or any similar thing; the only required item was to prove yourself worthy of the job, be it in politics, science, or arts. The first diploma ever was issued in Europe’s oldest university of Bologna in the Middle Ages.

Even here we may see the contradiction which has successfully evolved into a full-fledged catch 22 these days. In ancient days, you had to prove yourself worthy of the job (or, in the last days of the Roman Republic, capable of regularly bribing voters), and no one would ever ask you whether you’re qualified. A magistrate was elected because he was convincing enough in his speeches.

If the official’s further affairs proved the contrary, the career could end right away. The concept of diplomas, which you can also buy or dishonestly obtain, is a typical red tape obstacle, which may prevent a worthy person from taking a perfect job.

Some people live in the middle of nowhere, and getting to town requires too much effort and money. Those people may be really capable of a doing a great job, but they have to stay in their Holeville, and may only watch their more successful peers from big cities fucking everything up and asking for a promotion.

The higher education system as we know it is pretty disadvantageous. Some may think it’s a malum necessarium, while their opponents may spend hours proving the past is gone, and the future isn’t here yet. The most adequate answers, as we know, are usually found somewhere in the middle.

Cursus honorum has some elements, which, when reworked for postmodernist reality, may become disruptive for our education system.

Imagine you’re the Holeville resident. You never went to college, but may code on C#, speak five languages, and know some neuropsychology stuff, as total absence of any events in Holeville made you read a lot, and know a lot. You lie on a couch and curse yourself, your life, and this goddamn reality, but all of a sudden a lightbulb appears over your head.

Blockchain could replace a diploma as a proof of qualification without any disadvantages thereof, like buying a fake one. Considering there’s something that had prevented you from dying in Holeville of hunger, you must have had some work. You could make a website, or translated something from Czech to Hungarian, or wrote a feature on how parochial altruism works in civil war conditions. Whatever you do, if you wish, may be recorded on a blockchain, and any your customer may have any details they like, while your work’s quality will be assessed independently by the customer or anyone else having a personal key. Blockchain may become your diploma, CV and portfolio, all rolled into one.

A system like that could make life easier to many people. After all, a diploma has much in common with IQ tests: it certifies you’re capable of passing those particular exams, but says nothing about your actual knowledge and skills.

Jenny Aysgarth

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Tags: blockchain, Education