Are we, at Blair, preparing our students for the future?
From Thomas Friedman in yesterday's New York Times:
"How to adapt? It will require more individual initiative. We know that it will be vital to have more of the 'right' education than less, that you will need to develop skills that are complementary to technology rather than ones that can be easily replaced by it and that we need everyone to be innovating new products and services to employ the people who are being liberated from routine work by automation and software. The winners won’t just be those with more I.Q. It will also be those with more P.Q. (passion quotient) and C.Q. (curiosity quotient) to leverage all the new digital tools to not just find a job, but to invent one or reinvent one, and to not just learn but to relearn for a lifetime."
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Are we creating an environment that encourages initiative and the pursuit of an individual passion? Do we foster and reward curiosity? Do we do these things consciously as part of our curriculum? Do we, as teachers, model these values (particularly the importance of life long learning)?
I am not necessarily suggesting we come up short, but as we seek rejuvenation during the long weekend, we might also consider ways in which we can further integrate these values into our work at Blair.
Finally, thanks to those (particularly Eck and Jason) who are actively using and promoting this blog.
Interesting piece, and I'm normally anti-Friedman. It ties in with yesterday's Monitors, today's chapel, and a spirited conversation at lunch. And thanks to you, this blog is having a direct impact on the quality of my teaching.
ReplyDeleteI like that Friedman has found a new focus, but I do wish he'd getting back to traveling and giving a more first hand account of the world - he has such valuable access. This in part ties in the homework piece that Rachel posted - do kids at Blair have so much homework that they can't pursue other passions? Would they pursue the 'right' ones or ones we would find useful (besides sports/theater/music/art)? Perhaps given the significant amount of time most of our students are away from Blair the question is moot and we should look to maximize their time while they are here? Certainly, that should include, as Friedman and Ryan suggest, modeling the type of learning we'd like to see them carry on outside of Blair.
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