The education of the next generation lies with utilizing, incorporating, etc. the changes that have been brought about by the information age technology; database management, information search-ability, and access to infinite amounts of information. The future of education will take full advantage of these opportunities to offer educational services to everyone who is willing to partake.
We need to understand how the next generation is being raised, what information they have access to, how they think (they think differently then being raised in a non information accessible generation) in order to maximize the learning experience and prepare them for their future. Our current system of education, class room lectures, short periods of learning one subject and moving to another subject, corporate learning, everyone graded based on where they should be for their age level and in preparation for going to college, etc. I would like to note at this time that college is a good alternative for kids that need additional training in a professional subject, but it is not the right choice for everyone, and in today's world even the idea of going to college is getting turned on its head.
It is amazing to see how all the schools in this country have finally gotten around to preparing all students to go to college. We have eliminated shop classes (we are too smart to have to build things with our hands), we focus more on social agendas than factual information, and we have reduced education to teaching everyone that they need to think all the same so we don't hurt anyone's feelings. Listen, we will not survive as a country if we continue down this path. We need to understand, embrace, and learn to communicate our differences in a civil, critical thinking, and honest manner. We need to offer opportunities for kids to fail, to understand that we are not all going to be successful at the same thing, or all live in the same type of life style. We need to broaden the possibilities and the acceptance of the type of work that provides for our families, the type of lifestyles that make up a dynamic, fruitful society.
The future is not about getting a job, although that's what a lot of us will do and that's ok, but the job landscape is changing and we will get into that in a moment, its about preparing kids to be independent. In our society today there is no company loyalty, we have moved to a "contract" mentality even if we work for a company as an employee we can leave at anytime. We need to teach our kids how to represent themselves whether they go to work for a company, start their own company, or create opportunities that create an income; we need to teach our kids about all these opportunities and how to operate in this future environment.
When you look at some of the most successful people in the world, a lot of them did not have a college or even some a high school education. As Robert Kiyosaki points out in his book "A's and B's work for C's", C's being capitalists, these are people that create opportunities. They are the visionaries. These are the people that create the future. We need to prepare our kids to think like this in the coming "work" environment. We need to teach them to think critically, creativity, and cognitively. We need to offer them hands on experiences. As they think critically they will discover to use their brains to solve complicated problems and overcome their failures.
We need to be teaching the next generation with the skills to think this way. In a digital world we need to offer opportunities to be hands-on, to think strategically (verses data collectors, reference: "Making Your Brain Smarter" by Sandra Bond Chapman), and think independently.
What if we created an environment where kids could explore ideas, learn through doing (and failing), and get exposure to hand-on applications, and real life experiences? An environment that will prepare them earlier in life for being leaders that are successful and productive in business, the community, and as citizens. With the access to unlimited educational programs and courses on line this is possible, to gain insight from the best teachers in the world and at a fraction of the price of a college education. We need to take advantage of this access and provide instructional support to guide our kids to thinking this way earlier in life. The one piece of information that I remember from college about being a designer was, you just need to know where to look for information, because you are not going to learn everything in school. I want to offer this opportunity to the next generation. To teach them not about facts and figures, but about the learning process and that the opportunities are limitless, they just need to know where to look and how to manage that knowledge and they will go far in life.
Values to instill:
1. To serve God and our neighbors with all our heart, mind, and soul.
2. Instill critical, creative, and cognitive skills to foster innovation, creativity, and self reliant thinking.
3. We need to learn and work smart so we can give generously.
Teaching focused on:
1. Values and principles from the bible
2. Citizenship through History Study
3. Information gathering and management
4. Hand-on experiences
5. Business/Management Systems
The sooner one can fail the sooner they will become wise. Through the exercise of trial and error kids can build upon that experience. They not only learn that they made a bad decision (critical thinking) they need to work through that mistake (cognitive thinking) to develop a solution to being successful (creative thinking). What if we provided the resources, guidance, and wisdom to get to a successful solution faster? This is the idea behind the next generation "school". It would be an entrepreneur experience that would immerse the kids in a high sensory learning environment. At first this could be overwhelming. Part of this experience will be to help manage and start to build a path that will lead to to being a creative, generous, and successful leader that will not only create opportunities for themselves, but others as well.
