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Continued from the the previous page where I asked, "Are our children prepared?"
Are WE, their parents, prepared to prepare them??
Shift Happens: The Future of (Your Child's) Work -- Not to Mention Their Education -- And The Skills They Will REALLY Need
If one thing IS certain, it's the 'uncertain future'.
There has been a shift in the world (it happens).
Change is happening at a faster rate than ever before in the history of the planet.
As a teen, could you have predicted that you would be carrying a smartphone in your pocket by the time you were in your forties or fifties?
How can we even begin to fathom what technology will exist when our children reach mid-life?
Futurist Ray Kurzweil and his 'Law of Accelerating Returns' says something like this:
From 2000 to 2014, humans achieved the same amount of change and progress as happened during the entire 20th century... 100 years of progress in just 7 years.
He continues:
"If we’re being truly logical and expecting historical patterns to continue, we should conclude that much, much, much more should change in the coming decades than we intuitively expect." [1]
Here's a glimpse of what's already happened:
This is what it's like:
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The BIGGEST problem, for your family?
(Besides the fact that life FEELS normal and not like you're standing at the base of an 'uncertain' mountain of change?)
It's this...
Our kids (just like we were) are being educated with a system that was implemented in the 19th century (and has roots earlier than that).
It's a linear, Industrial Age model.
It's huge and leviathan like, slow moving and slow changing.
And remember, we are NO LONGER in the Industrial Age.
We entered the Information Age in the mid-20th century, but we are already out of that too and into the Creative or Innovation Age.
Yes, we've made innovations and changes to schooling since the 1800s.
Positive changes have been made in the public system...
...not to mention
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homeschooling
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unschooling
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worldschooling
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charter schools
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trade schools
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alternative schools
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forest schools
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and all sorts of other cool things that have happened.
But ultimately, all these types of 'schooling' are all just another version of a vehicle that was invented in the 1800s.
What we really need to do is stop building another 'ground vehicle' model and start building a rocket.
(See image below.)
Most forms of schooling and education as we currently know them (at home, on the go, or in the classroom) have become outdated.
Not because they didn't work or do their job...
But because the future we're headed for will look drastically, exponentially different than the past or the current present.
They were what we needed to transport us to where we are now -- our present reality with all it's abundance and technology.
They have been helpful and useful.
But these education models can't take our children to where they need to go next...
Mostly because they are built on a chassis (the frame of a vehicle) that can't be transformed into a rocket.
We can't prepare our children for an 'uncertain future' with an outdated education model that is training them for a 'future' that is already in the past --
-- a model that is preparing them for the world we are already living in (which they'll remember as their childhood)...
...but this is not the world they will inhabit as adults.
We can't take our children to the moon -- metaphorically speaking -- using a vehicle that was designed to drive on the ground.
Gratefully, the antiquated, 19th Century, linear educational system is being forced to change.
"...we cannot let schools return to “normal” after the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an opportunity to reimagine instruction and adopt approaches that forever change learning for all students. Let’s learn from what works.. and apply that to rethink what is possible." 1
'School' (no matter where it takes place) should never be the same again, especially if we truly want to prepare the next generation for a future that none of us can predict --
-- one where the places and positions our children will work at don't exist...
...and will be dependent on technology that hasn't yet been invented, and will require skills that aren't currently being taught.
To design an 'Education for the Future' we have to make changes that actually work -- and last -- by scrapping our current models, ideas, paradigms, & approaches and rebuilding from the ground up.
This time we'll build a rocket with wings, not something with wheels.
The 'Cornerstones' -- The Most Important Skills of the 21st Century.
There is a growing gap that your children will fall into when they reach adulthood.
It is the gap between poverty and wealth, education and ignorance, happiness and misery.
The middle ground, the middle class, the middle, 'okay' life is already beginning to disappear.
This trend is expected to continue and increase in disparity.
Bemoaning the 'unfairness' of it all, complaining about your fate, or failing to take action because of fear will NOT help you or your children.
So what can be done?
Prepare and prevent.
Commit to taking action now that will place your family in the upper income brackets and hedge them against the insecurity of lost jobs and lowering wages.
From there you can help others, including the generations that follow. You can build a legacy worth leaving.
How?
Only the right kind of education can do this.
A 21st century 'rocket' type of education.
An education that ensures your children are more likely to succeed by learning and mastering The Cornerstone Skills.
These quotes give a lovely little introduction to what these skills are.
Let's see if you can start to figure them out (don't worry, I'll tell you what they are in just a little bit.)
"For most of human history, the primary focus of education has been on acquiring more content knowledge... you don't have to do that anymore.
Today content is ubiquitous. It's free. It's on every internet connected device.
And it's growing exponentially and changing constantly.
The world simply no longer cares what our kids know.
What they care about is what they can DO with what they know, which is a completely different education problem."
"In the 21st century, work ethic isn't good enough... you can't just work hard [to succeed].
You actually have to know what to do next yourself.
You have to be [self] motivated and you have the knowledge about 'what is the next step I ought to be taking'?"
We have to have students capable of innovative thinking.
What are employers looking for?
The are looking for people who can do critical thinking & problem-solving... in order to get an interview.
They assume you've got that.
What [employers] are really looking for [to hire] are people who can not only do their job really well.
...but can invent, re-invent, and re-engineer their job while they're doing it."
Only 2% of the items on a standardized math test measures higher level thinking skills.
The other 98% deals with whether you can do the presented procedure [or guess the answer from one of five choices].
The major problem is that even those who can identify the right answer on a math test...
...cannot reason their way through a mathematical application in the real world.
"We have to prepare students to be resilient, to be thinkers, to be collaborators, to be communicators.
We have to prepare them in such a different way."
(Quotes above from this video below):
"There is a sharp trade-off between what can be tested easily on a large scale, and what's important in life."
Are you getting an idea of what The Cornerstone Skills are?
Good! I'll let you know if you're on track in a minute.
But first...
"The machines are coming"... says the TED Talk below.
What can be replaced by automation will likely be replaced.
We have to focus on developing the skills that are UNIQUELY human.
"We can inoculate ourselves against the machine revolution by developing our uniquely human characteristics --
-- love, empathy, creativity, and critical thought...
These things cannot found on any curriculum for school, but they are arguably the cornerstones of providing a meaningful education to our kids.
Before we dig in deeply to each of the skills...
Are you beginning to wonder where and how [you and] your kids are going to learn these skills?
Especially if no school or curriculum is currently teaching them?
That's the best part.
Just as you no longer need a travel agent to book a cruise or a trip...
...or have to go to the doctor to diagnose basic illnesses...
...you no longer need a school (home or public), teacher, or curriculum to for your children to learn The Cornerstone Skills that will make the biggest difference in their lifetime...
You just need to know where to look to find what you need.
(I'll explain how soon, in case you're doubting if it's really true or plausible.)
And I'll also touch on something else that I feel very strongly about...
Our children spend a majority of their childhood 'in school'...
So shouldn't they be happy and so excited about it that they jump out of bed in the morning, ready for another day of passionate learning?
Think that's a bit idealist?
We've seen it happen, again and again.
Not only with our own teens, but with others who have built an 'education rocket'.
It causes teens to come alive.
I'll have to tell you about it later.
First, let's dig in to each of The Cornerstone Skills.
Click here to continue down the rabbit hole with the 1st Cornerstone.
But wait! First you should watch this short video:
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