At my nieces’ school they use Chromebooks. Learning this made me think back to when I was about their age, and to the Commodore 64 in the back of the classroom, with the tape drive that never worked right.
Things have changed since then (let’s not discuss the state of sex ed…) and I don’t envy those who have to figure out what to teach kids, now and in the coming years.
Did educators in previous decades consider nuclear war to be likely enough to plan kids’ futures around it the way teachers and administrators now will have to plan for AI and climate change?
I don’t recall us ever considering the concept of a job for which there wasn’t formal education. (“Knowledge worker” wasn’t a thing.) Until I found myself doing such a job and getting asked often what I’d gone to school for.
It was pretty much a given that the optimal goal, if you were in the right high school stream and did well enough, was that you would go to university. Didn’t really matter if you weren’t sure what you wanted to study or do career-wise. That was the way to the brightest future.
That line of reasoning wasn’t entirely accurate then, nor is it now. But I think we’re becoming more aware of that, thanks to debt, gigs, shortages of tradespeople, and industry lore about dropping out of X university to found Y world-changing startup.
Of course, that still assumes that people work. How do you prepare kids for the good chance that “jobs” will become something discussed in history class? What do you learn to do if most people no longer work?
I have worked with people who retired after 40+ years with the same company, though I never expected that. My parents and teachers were never in a position to explain or prepare me for the dot-com bust, either. A little different from the stock market crash of 1929.
We should teach kids basic economics and financial management so they can do cost-benefit analysis on education and debt and job/earning prospects. We should introduce them to people like Kerry K. Taylor so they can learn practical financial skills they’ll need, like how to compare the value of cell phone plans and the pitfalls of credit cards.
Further to practical skills, is there any point to Home Ec. when apps will deliver anything you want to eat, and “fast fashion” is still largely designed to be disposable? Who needs auto shop when self-driving car services will get us where we want to go? But then, what if there’s an apocalypse?
Even if I don’t entirely get what it’ll do, I like the idea of an Innovation Lab. (Please don’t just mean “teach everyone to code.”) I like the idea of teaching kids to think creatively and critically, and to know what comes next if they have a good idea they want to explore. Particularly if everyone gets the same opportunities to do so.
Even if everyone isn’t cut out for entrepreneurship, I think it’s a good idea for kids to learn how starting, growing and running a business works and what options are if that feels like the right path for them. Accompanied by a dash of ethics and corporate civics, naturally.
Remember those Chromebooks I mentioned? Yeah. They’re cheap and offer a lot of advantages for kids’ learning. They also indoctrinate kids into one company’s ecosystem. G Suite for Education pretty much does it all. Clever.
I have 15+ years’ worth of data in Google products. Imagine how much there’d be if I’d started when I was 10. Imagine what a whiz I’d be with Google tools in my personal and professional lives if I’d been using their stuff that long, and how disinclined I’d be to use anything else. Hmm.
Companies have been trying to create lifelong customers for ages. Brush with Crest, drive a Ford… But the reach that tech companies have into our lives – kids included – is now far beyond the influence of coupons, TV commercials and radio jingles.
Let’s make sure kids know how that world works. Teach them about corporate sponsorships and free vs. paid models and branding. Let them know how hard becoming an influencer really is and how much harder maintaining that lifestyle becomes over time. All part of entrepreneurship, really.
Can’t forget the arts. Obviously kids will never go wrong learning to love reading – in whatever medium – and being competent researchers. Do bibliographies even contain actual books any more? Teach them interrogation techniques.
What are the sources? Is there a byline or photo credit? Where else does the author write and what do they write about? What organizations do they have ties to? What agenda might they (or the broader publication) have? If it’s historical, what was the person doing then, how were they influential, and what were the broader socio-cultural influences of the time?
Apply a critical lens to the past. Dates and places are not the most important things. How does one find out the stories not told by the victors? Canadian history was still very imperialist when I was in school. Thank goodness for the bounty of podcasts.
This is not the full story of the Underground Railroad. If you were a woman without family or resources in the 1600s, how bleak were your options that becoming a Fille du Roi seemed like a good idea? Why did we watch Black Robe, but our education into the influence and actions of the Catholic Church (and government) stopped a couple centuries before residential schools?
Teach the craft of media production so kids will know how it’s made and be able to detect manipulation (and wield their own). We’re not great at detecting the fake and the manipulated yet, but we can get better.
Even with the trickiness of navigating “truth” these days, it’s cool that kids have so many resources, which also accommodate different styles of learning and creative expression much better than just sitting still and writing things down. Good teachers, librarians, etc. have to be able to competently wear a lot of hats, though, and rarely have the necessary budget to do even half of this stuff.
Ultimately, I figure if hearing about the nieces’ education leaves me a bit baffled, that’s a good sign. If they can show me the ropes of new tech, even better. And if I start to feel too fossilized, I can still dazzle them with my way of writing secret code. You might know it as cursive.
M-Theory is an opinion column by Melanie Baker. Opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Communitech. Melle can be reached at @melle or me@melle.ca.
