Yesterday or Tomorrow?
Will your student be educated for the World of Yesterday or the World of Tomorrow? This should be a silly question, but Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said that most teaching is preparing young people for the 19th and 20th centuries, not the 21st century.
Parents must be visionary in their educational choices for their student, especially in Middle School, because it is so critical in terms of career readiness. Of course it is important that the student also have voice and choice in this decision.
Consider the following:
- In 2012, Forbes Magazine reported on ten promising jobs that didn’t even exist ten years earlier.
- Another source states that, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist… using technologies that haven’t been invented …in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet!”
- The average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for 4.4 years according to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the expected tenure of the workforce’s youngest employees is about only 2 years.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker currently holds ten different jobs before the age of 40, and this number is projected to grow. Forrester Research predicts that today’s youngest workers will hold twelve to fifteen jobs in their lifetime.
What will the world be like by the time your Middle Schooler is 40 years old? There is no crystal ball, but providing your student with the unique education that Global Village offers will give him or her the skills necessary for success in a global economy. We prepare students for the 21st century by:
- Offering world class academics,
- Teaching English and a second world language,
- Developing cultural competency, and
- Cultivating authentic 21st century skills.