Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

#53 of 60: What will kids today need to learn to succeed in 2050? 🤔

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This was the question posed in a 2018 article by historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, What kids need to learn to succeed in 2050: The art of reinvention will be the most critical skill of this century.

Nobody can predict the future. But we can do two things to intelligently plan for it…

  • Create interesting narratives of the future by studying current and past trends.
  • Take action on the preferred narratives to bring them to reality, realizing we can shape the future…it doesn’t just happen to us.

Harari reminds us that a baby born today will be nearing 30 by 2050. And then poses a couple of provocations:

What should we teach that baby that will help them survive and flourish in the world of 2050 or the 22nd century?

What kind of skills will they need in order to get a job, understand what is happening around them, and navigate the maze of life?

Harari goes on to argue that the current system of education is designed to prepare learners for a life of stability. But looking at the current signals and trends, life in 2050 is bound to be anything but stable. Just look at the last year!

He goes on…

How do you live in a world where profound uncertainty is not a bug but a feature?

To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and learn to feel at home with the unknown. Unfortunately, teaching kids to embrace the unknown while maintaining their mental balance is far more difficult than teaching them an equation in physics or the causes of the First World War. You cannot learn resilience by reading a book or listening to a lecture. Teachers themselves usually lack the mental flexibility that the 21st century demands since they themselves are the product of the old educational system.

Harari leaves us with this idea: If we are to thrive in a world of uncertainty, we will need to have a deep understanding of our own personal operating system––”to know what we are and what we want from life.” 

Self-awareness.

And once we have a high level of self-awareness, we can respond with agility to the rapidly changing landscape around us in ways that maintain fulfillment and allow us to continue to flourish as individuals.

This resonates with Todd Rose’s path to success (from provocation #39)

  • Know your micro-motives. 
  • Know your choices. 
  • Know your strategies. 

—–

âť“ Provocations:

Is the future (and present, for that matter) moving too fast for the current model of schooling to be anything but outdated by 2050? If so, how can we use this fact to create urgency for transformation?

What are we currently doing to help learners better understand themselves?

đź’Ž Resources:

An algorithm that knows you better than you know yourself – video

🧠 Mindsets:

Self-awareness before content

đź’ˇ Areas:

Learning

📣 Drop your thoughts in the comments, or in the Facebook group, and feel free to share resources. 🔥🔥🔥

Randy Ziegenfuss
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