A number of edubloggers have been talking about what drives them in exploring alternatives to traditional teaching and learning. For most, it has been their young children who still have many years of formal schooling ahead of them. I can certainly sympathize with this. I’ll have to say, though, that as I get older, and my children are moving out, it is myself and my wife who are at stake. I won’t spout on about the Flat World, because it isn’t flat. But the ridges and valleys that make up the economic landscape are shifting dramatically, and my future is not nearly so certain as that of my father and mother.
My future depends on the continued economic value of where I live, and it concerns me that we insist on continuing to prepare our children for a world that is becoming a memory, and not preparing them for the astounding opportunities of a rapidly changing future. The children in our classrooms will be generating the wealth that will support me, when I finally retire (or at least slow down). My wife, a business major and financial genius, is planning for our future. But even at that, our well-being will rest on the shifting economic landscape of the place where we live. Well we be able to settle in the mountains of North Carolina (our dream), or will we have to consider another country, where the economy is strong enough to support the security that we crave?
As we fiddle and sigh, and continue to procrastinate the important questions that face us now, the security of our own future slips away.
2¢ Worth.
It sounds like another Sputnik is needed– an event that would shake off the general ennui of traditional approaches and expectations. Any candidates?
“Classroom Blogging” just arrived in my mailbox. At first scan, it appears to be exactly what I was looking for. I got two copies, one for me, the other, perhaps, to lend to other people who may be interested.
There is a great set of stories in the Newsweek Issues 2006: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10205943/site/newsweek/
Unfortunately you have to part with your cash and buy a paper copy to read all of the articles, but it’s worth it.
The point? If we want our economies to be strong we have to start getting our knowledge economies off the ground, just like Singapore has been doing for years. In Singapore the ONLY thing they have is knowledge for their economy and they’ve done a great deal to improve in that area. The big growth countries like China and Korea and India are making their money through cheaper salaries and labour-intensive industry. If we want to remain at the top then it’s never going to be through playing the same game. We’ve got to work smarter and quicker than them.
Sounds very fatalistic, but I’m sure that the journalists do have an economic reality at heart.