Lesson Learned

 Lesson Learned

Yes, our future will include raising our IQ dramatically with nutrients and environmental stimulation and controls. That is already happening. We will also receive our education through sleep and augmented reality Instant Course programs through which we will experience the nuance of actually practicing all interesting professions.

But that’s then and this is now. In order to see the future from back here in present time, one must be familiar with all the current factors influencing it. Admittedly, there are many many factors, and seeing them requires an education.

An education isn’t the same as it once was. Old style education has become obsolete simply because the future is arriving more quickly than it did before.

Old style education, ie K-12, Bachelors through Doctorate, takes 25 or more years and is specialized. For instance, in the old days, people didn’t understand the relationship between engineering and law and medicine, so if you followed one path you were likely to be deficient in the others and thus not as good as the subject needed you to be. It is not uncommon for highly educated individuals to not be able to balance their checkbook, do maintenance on their car or even do their own laundry or get a date.

Of course, the old style model precipitated even more specialization and associated obfuscation so the professional could control who knew what in their field. The idea that a lesser student couldn’t comprehend the more subtle points in math or physics or psychology paid off for the professional until the arrival of a more modern Education-for-Everyone, i.e. the internet. This allowed the trade and professional secrets to flow freely to anyone who was curious.

Why pay $60,000 plus to get an education that may not actually serve you as promised? Not only will it not put you in a position to advance the science, it may not even get you a job in that specialty.

Teens are figuring this all out now and staying away from higher education in droves. But there really does need to be a better system in the future. These days, it is hard to even know what professions will be around twenty years down the road.

My son is wrapping up his first Master’s degree but he had the good fortune to know what he wanted to accomplish right from the get-go. He started out attending smaller then larger universities but ended up wrapping up his Masters at an online school. That was the only way he could get the courses he needed for the education he wanted while maintaining a job.  It has all worked out very well. A self-mined education like his is usually well motivated but it can be deficient in vertical details like the old system was deficient in horizontal details but he took two jobs in the appropriate fields to supplement his skills. And that will be the educational system of the future.

Find out where the student wants to go and show them what they need to know to get there. If the student doesn’t have a clue about their direction, ask them what they would like to have. If its just money ask them again until what they want is to participate in having a better earth or community or understanding.  At this point, it will be mandatory to have the community help in the student’s guidance and redirection. This education should also include a briefing on current social and technological evolution.

Years ago I developed a light version of this system call the Mini-Course System. It was delivered at Scripps Institution of Oceanography by members of the Marine Technology Society of which I was the local chairman.  We needed a fundraiser so I put together 6 expert teams specializing in Underwater Navigation, Dive Medicine, Maritime Law, Underwater Cinematography, Advanced Diving,  and Underwater Communication. Each course on the MiniCourse Program was designed to take a person from the basics through to state of the art in one four-hour Saturday morning course. The finest speakers and demonstration devices were collected to make this program effective and enlightening. It was fun and popular but the next administration felt that it was too much work. This was before YouTube and online courses and I will always regret not having videoed the courses. Nonetheless, I have used this quick-and-dirty education model a number of times and it works superbly.

If it is not obvious how this helps predict the future, people going there will need to be educated enough to be able to see where they are going and develop a strategic path to get there. They will need a workable education system that is flexible and pertinent to comprehend the complex factors influencing their future.

Every new day is the starting line for the future and old pasts must be easily disposed of in order to change course to accommodate fresh opportunities. A perpetual, pertinent and passionate pursuit of an education is your passport to predicting your future.