More Focus on Tomorrow; Use Educational Futuristics
K-12 schooling focuses primarily on the Past and the Present. Young learners want as well to explore the Future. They want to understand choices they can make to help shape the space where they will spend the rest of their lives. They are endlessly fascinated by possibilities - both positive and perilous - and their investment in their schooling would greatly improve if schools included the future in every aspect of the curriculum.
This includes, and goes beyond the Greening of education, the use of IT “ghee whiz” technology, internet outreach to schools overseas, and other strengths of Educational Futuristics. It especially involves infusion in a school of a pro-learning attitude - one which helps youngsters gain cautious optimism about our ability to tackle major social problems, make sound response choices, assess consequences, and improve our choices.
If and when we begin to really employ Educational Futuristics in K-12 schooling our students will gain craft in decision-making and knowledge of key options out ahead of society - two learning rewards that will serve them well the rest of their lives.
The next President of the United States could ask his Secretary of Education to immediately establish a Blue-Ribbon Committee to report back in three months with a pragmatic, low-cost, and high-profile Plan for rapidly promoting Educational F uturistics. OECD nations already have such plans in motion, and the USA cannot catch up - and go ahead - soon enough.
(Help is available in my 2008 book, Anticipate the School You want: Futurizing K-12 Education).
This post was submitted by Arthur Shostak.
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