Yesterday I received an email form a parent with a link to a YouTube video that really had some amazing implications regarding education, as well as the state of our world. While much of it dealt with the changes or differences in populations amongst some of our most populated countries, what stood out the most to me, as an educator, was the information and implications regarding the labor market in coming years, and how it will effect today's students.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q
At the last CPTA, I was talking about our attempt to prepare students for the world in which they will live, not the world we grew up in. However, according to this video, the top ten jobs in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004! Additionally, we are preparing our kids today for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that have not yet been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. A great deal of additional information regarding world population and technologies is included in the video and is well worth viewing, but, again, it seemed to imply that it was almost impossible to repare students for the world in which they will work.
If we think back to our own childhood, many of us are of the age that computers were just starting to be used, and using them wasa major annoyance. Children today are digital natives, versus most adults who are digital immigrants. Many adults today still struggle with technologies that our children regard as simplistic. While the information contained in the video was initially overwhelming and almost made going to school seem futile, 24 hours later it gave me pause to think and maybe a new perspective as to what we need to focus on in school.
Foundation skills are obviously important and crucial to the future development of any child's success. But in addition to these skills, it seems to becoming more apparent that their is no way we could possibly prepare them for technologies we don't even know about. So maybe what we need to spend much more time on, as educators and as parents is problem solving. On one hand, this is not new information, and we have already identified this is an area we need to improve upon with our students. However, now more than ever, it seems that maybe this will be the number one skill necessary to ensure success in the "world of tomorrow." It is a skill that will be applicable to any career, profession or technology that comes along in the future. Any thoughts?
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I have always believed that one of the most important things we, as parents can and should teach our children is a sense of "how to"...that can mean how to study, how to approach something they have never encountered before or how to break something down so it is accessible to them. I agree we cannot know what the future holds in store for our children. We can only help them feel confident in themselves and who they are becoming. As a parent of a graduating 8th grader, we are starting a new chapter in parenthood and I think both of us are learning "how to" together. We will make mistakes and learn from them and hopefully grow together not apart.
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