In these days, homes live upon the fluttering of hearts, and eyes anxiously await the rosters of graduates and the results of secondary examinations, as though awaiting the judgment of the heavens or writs of salvation. These are the days when the dreams of the youth are weighed on scales of paper, and their minds are measured by what their pens have hastily scribbled in numbered hours. Comparisons are drawn, and the gates of university admissions are thrown wide open, as if the future of this human being—appointed as a steward upon the earth to build and flourish—has been mortgaged to a deaf number, or a grade that is nothing more than a pale shadow of the true essence of their mind and the core of their potential.

We have been afflicted in this age by the blight of clinging to the superficialities of measurement. We now see nations racing in the arenas of international assessments, such as the PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS exams, believing them to be the final word in evaluating minds and the true balance of excellence. Yet, by the truth, what are they but rigid molds that test memory far more than they test comprehension? They measure a student’s capacity to retrieve theory, not their capacity to invent solutions or untangle dilemmas. We diminish the worth of the human being when we confine them to the tables of these exams, forgetting that building skill and cultivating faculties is the true standard by which nations rise. We do not wish to build our evaluation upon a barren “matrix” of grades, but rather upon a vital and flexible “Grid,” expansive enough to encompass the branching of practical skills and their integration in the real world.

And a sweeping tide of knowledge has overshadowed us in this time—a deluge of technological revolutions and the realms of artificial intelligence—rendering reliance on theorization and rote memorization an exercise in antiquated futility. What use is retention and recitation, and what benefit is there in spoon-feeding and repetition, when the deaf machine, with the press of a button, summons the knowledge of the ancients and the moderns, and solves the most complex equations in the blink of an eye? We are living the dawn of a new era where sovereignty does not belong to the one who hoards information, but to the one who masters its direction and comprehends the secret of its composition.

Here, the desperate need for skills absent from our classrooms becomes radiantly clear; I mean “logical maneuvering” (Prompt Engineering) which tames the wildness of the machine and coaxes its intelligence to speak; “programming,” which is the language of this age and its eloquent tongue; and the “principles of engineering,” which build the structures of thought before the structures of steel. These, by the truth of life, are the precious jewels from which the wealth of the future shall be extracted, and the springs that will overflow with prosperity and influence for the nations that master them.

This is not a cast into the unseen nor a luxury of speech, but rather what the realities of the age declare, affirmed by the world’s greatest universities and research centers. If we look closely at the language of numbers, we see it verifies what we assert regarding the inadequacy of theoretical reliance and the inevitability of shifting toward the skills of the future:

* Stanford University and the Explosion of Skills: The annual “AI Index Report” issued by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) reveals that the demand for AI and programming skills has multiplied immensely across all sectors. Their data confirms that jobs requiring the capacities of engineering thought and logical analysis are growing at a speed that vastly outpaces others, while the value of abstract theoretical knowledge—which the machine can easily imitate—is eroding. This leaves traditional education isolated from the march of history.

* Harvard University and the Productivity Revolution via Logical Maneuvering: In a renowned study by Harvard Business School (in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group, BCG), tracing the impact of generative AI on consultants, it was revealed that professionals who utilized AI with the skill of “logical maneuvering” (Prompt Engineering) and excellent direction completed their complex tasks 25% faster, and with a quality 40% higher than those who relied solely on abstract theoretical effort. This is the wealth of minds when they wed the revolution of machines with logic and understanding.

* Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Automation of Theories: Research from MIT, particularly expert studies on the future of work, affirms that AI will not be content with automating routine tasks; it will extend to the automation of “cognitive tasks.” Statistics indicate that future economic value will not be built on what a human memorizes, but on their ability to apply the principles of engineering and programming to solve unprecedented dilemmas. Major economic reports based on these models suggest generative AI will add trillions of dollars to the global economy—the lion’s share of which will be exclusive to those who hold the reins of these technical jewels.

* The Fall of the Illusion of Theoretical Excellence (OECD): In-depth analyses of the PISA results themselves have proven that a minuscule percentage (averaging no more than 9% within OECD countries) of students are capable of critical thinking and solving complex problems in unfamiliar contexts. This exposes the flaw of total reliance on theoretical indoctrination, which succeeds in the exam room but fails before the challenges of artificial intelligence and real life.

O parents, and O you who are entrusted with the matter of education, do not break the wings of the youth in the cages of marks, nor extinguish the gleam in their eyes with the coldness of admissions rankings. A university degree that relies on reciting theories is no longer the journey’s end. Indeed, these numbers published today and passed on by tongues will not build a homeland nor establish a civilization unless they are coupled with a skill mastered, a mind that ponders, and a hand fluent in the language of the machine and the principles of programming. Let your endeavor be to develop their minds with logical construction, and to polish their spirits with engineering and technical experience. For in our coming tomorrow, a person is measured by the benefit they overflow with and the solutions they invent, not by the ink on paper they carry, in a world where the machine now reads and writes faster than the children of mankind.