The other day as I was watching a PBS program on the pace
and disruptive nature of technological advancement impacting energy,
manufacturing and science fields, it became clear to me that the only thing for
certain about the future is that it will not look like today.
The best evidence of this fact is that young adults are
graduating from college with old expectations of what it means to gain and
maintain employment as the job market is transforming. It is no longer a matter
of simply applying to a position someone else created as with the economy and
paradigm of the previous generation.
As a business owner and an educator of life skills training
in personal finance and entrepreneurship, I observe that our present culture of
education, while some excellent changes are being made to offer students
options when it comes to their educational experience through personalized
education programs on line and/or independent study programs, K-12 programs are still not advanced enough to
provide a curriculum that prepares our college bound students to understand how
to pursue vocations that have not even been invented yet. Education today is still focused on training
them to take tests and regurgitate facts and follow directions. We seek
compliance from our children. We are not encouraging them to think for
themselves about their questions, interests and talents and to explore them.
So by the time they make it to college, they are not
equipped to jump into the fray and flow of creative energy around the
application of knowledge and technology to solve problems and make life better.
What they lack is the wisdom that comes from real
experiences as creative, critical thinkers.
That being the case, we must ask ourselves how we are
equipping children to capitalize on technology and emerging market trends resulting
from change. And if we wait until children are in college to instill the kind
of thinking required to capitalize on emerging opportunities it is very late in
the game. In a competitive, global environment, our children need to be
equipped early in life with the knowledge about what their interests and
talents are and how to leverage them in productive and meaningful ways.
And we need to start early - in grade school. Below are some
of the concepts that children can experience early and use for life.
What does it take to
make change happen?
Understand the system
Learn how to work successfully within it
Then figure out how to change it
Self-awareness and
knowledge
Teach kids to discern, self-sooth and self-direct.
Understand of the connection between interests and aptitude
What is your purpose in the world?
Leadership involves individual accountability and taking
responsibility.
Civic leadership.
Taking care of our own situation and help others take charge
of their own.
Experiences to take initiative and be confident.
How to focus on what
matters.
We need to teach kids how to research properly. They need to
be focused on sustainability…find a niche and capitalize on research, interests
and talents.
Just as our children need to be prepared to sail on
uncharted territory, so we as parents and educators need to shed our old ideas
and beliefs about the possibilities for our children’s future.
Their future is just that.
Their future.
It belongs to them and the more we tether them to old arcane
education experiences and ideas, the less able and nimble they will be in
responding to emerging trends and opportunities.
For more articles on Digital Age Education for Youth:
How the Leader in Me Offers Good Cyber Citizenship
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How the Leader in Me Offers Good Cyber Citizenship
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Marie, I couldn't agree with you more and thank you for your very insightful post. With the advancement of technology our children are virtually being force fed all their entertainment and answers to their questions/challenges. The need to discover and solve problems on their own has gone by the wayside. However, don't discount the "arcane" ways of the past. In days gone by people relied on their wits and life experience to solve problems on their own. My father was an excellent example of that mindset. If something was broken, he'd find a way to fix it or come up with something entirely new before he would purchase a replacement. Maybe the challenge is to get our youth to think original thoughts and not regurgitate what their have seen on the internet. I belief (hope) the pendulum will swing back to self reliance and critical thinking.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris for your wonderful comments! Far from it, the arcane ways are really the only ways people can make decisions from their own experiences. There is no better education than the education of failing. It is the opposite of everything we do as parents and educators because instead of allowing our children to fail and learn, we believe we are protecting them by giving them everything they could possibly need or want, before they even know they need it or want it. Without the opportunity for them to go out on a limb and fall, get back up and try it again now with the experience -- how can they actually ever solve the problems in their life without developing this much needed survival skill. I love the story about your Dad - it's so true. While technology has it's place and it is only going to grow in ways we can't even imagine yet, the skills our kids and their kids too will need to have to survive will be the same. Helping our kids at an early age recognize their own value, talents and skills and how that will benefit them with all forms of intelligence. By starting earlier, they have more time to practice the skill and get better at it through practice. This will equip them for pursuing the right dream not just chasing the idea of one.
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