In an age where information rests at the tip of a thumb, summoned with a tap rather than earned through effort, a generation has emerged that knows everything… yet understands nothing.
A generation that never lacks an answer, yet struggles to ask a question. It memorizes facts, but never interrogates them. It masters access, but fails to grasp the journey. This paradox is no accident—it is born from an excess of knowledge and a poverty of meaning, where culture shifts from something built in depth to something consumed at speed.
A study by the OECD found that while over 65% of students in developed countries can quickly access digital information, fewer than 20% can analyze it critically or apply it in real-life contexts. This is an educational disaster, wrapped in the shiny packaging of technology.
The “Google Generation” is not stupid—it is a victim of simplification. The joy of searching has been stolen, the thrill of discovery has vanished. They know the dates of the World Wars, but not the reasons they began. They memorize the symptoms of depression, but fail to feel empathy. They discuss emotional intelligence, yet cannot even listen to themselves. They know everything… because they were never trained to doubt, to reflect, or to build knowledge step by step.
Our schools have turned into mere “download platforms.” The teacher explains, the student records, the device stores—only for it all to vanish at the first exam. Students graduate with top honors, yet cannot draft a letter, conduct a conversation, or analyze an idea. We hand them diplomas… not understanding. We graduate minds that memorize but do not produce, that execute but do not innovate, that absorb but never initiate.
What we need is to rebuild the very foundation of education. We need schooling that bets on the human, not the machine; on depth, not quantity; on creativity, not imitation. An education that restores identity to the learner, and dignity to the school—not as a warehouse of rote memorization, but as a forum for dialogue and critical thought.
We do not need education that simply adds more facts to young minds. We need education that cleanses those minds of illusions. We need teaching that trains students in analytical thinking, bold expression, and the skills of real life: debate, negotiation, problem-solving, persuasion, and empathy.
Today’s generation is not to blame. They are smarter than we give them credit for—but they live in an environment that floods them with information while starving them of understanding. An environment that markets Artificial Intelligence as a replacement for humans, when in truth it should be a partner to the thinking human. If we fail to correct this imbalance, we are raising a fragile generation, programmed to answer… but untrained to question.
And here lies the point:
Do we want a generation that knows everything… or a generation that understands something, and uses it to change the world?
We Knead Our Children for Success… and Send Them Out Empty
Minds fermented under pressure… souls without flavor.
In our schools, the child is treated like dough—kneaded by a uniform curriculum, pressed by standardized assessments, and baked in the oven of exams at a predetermined temperature. Then he is presented to the world as a “loaf of excellence”… fragile in thought, hollow in ambition, unaware of why he was made or how he should be consumed!
But is success merely being poured into a mold? Or is it being baked in the fire of passion and meaning? Do we want our children to succeed… or simply to be ready for school display?
A child once asked his mother: “Why is the sky blue?”
Two years of schooling later, he asked: “How many marks will I lose if I forget a point in the definition?”
This is how we shift:
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From asking about the cosmos… to asking about grades.
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From the wonder of the mind… to the anxiety of exams.
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From the love of knowledge… to the fear of mistakes.
A study published in the Psychology of Education Review revealed that 68% of high school students in the Gulf felt that school success does not reflect their true abilities, and 59% admitted they had lost passion for learning as the years went by.
Success has thus shifted from a state of awareness… to a state of numerical achievement.
We teach our children how to succeed… but not why.
We train them how to answer… but not how to ask.
We place them in schools, and extract from them carbon copies… not unique individuals. Their success is designed to please us… not to resemble them.
And so, when they grow up, they perfect appearances, dread failure, and fear committing to a single idea. One hesitates before answering the simplest existential question: “What do you want to be?”
A generation of top achievers… yet without a single original thought of their own. They carry diplomas like loaves of bread—identical, uniform, yet tasteless.
And then we are surprised when the “outstanding student” collapses at the first test of life, when the optimist melts at the first doubt, when the achiever stumbles before the first project that requires a real decision! We ask in shock: “Why did he break down? Wasn’t he one of the top students?”
The truth: we are not preparing our children for success… we are conditioning them to accept someone else’s success. A success that is stored, accepted, repeated… but never truly their own. A success that does not rise from within… but is poured upon them from outside.
We never give our children the chance for inner combustion—not destruction, but transformation! For every true ripening requires a fire that burns from within, not a regulatory oven from without.
So, to those who impose molds:
Ease your hand on the dough… and let it keep its human shape.
Let our children bake their future with the heat of their choice… not the heat of your approval.
Here lies the paradox:
The tighter the mold… the weaker the bread.
The narrower the path… the more the soul is lost.
For a human being is not produced by compulsion… but by discovery.
And true excellence cannot be canned… it must ferment with meaning, freedom, and even error.
