So Futuristic

One challenge education has to face is that students of today need to be prepared for the economy of tomorrow. Educators have to anticipate what the future will look like for their students. We can look at current trends and use them to imagine how they will evolve.

Uber, Airbnb, and other companies are riding the wave of the "sharing economy." If we are to believe economic gurus, it is the wave of the future. The whole concept originates in the idea that anybody can do anything. DIY stores may have started that trend. Instead of hiring a qualified professional who possesses the skills and the tools needed to perform a job, people go to the DIY store, purchase the materials, the tools, and then spend hours figuring out how to do the job. Most of the time, they paint themselves into a corner. Sometimes, they end up in the hospital, except, of course, if they decide to reduce the fracture themselves and to do one more run to the DIY store to purchase some plaster to make a cast.

So, today, you can rent your sofa for one night to a "couchsurfer" or give El Chapo a ride to the airport. If this trend continues, soon anybody with a well-secured basement or a "red room" will be able to offer their service to house a few inmates. Calling 911 will connect you with Rita, who, from the comfort of her living room, will be able to dispatch a few armed guys from the neighborhood to deal with your intruders, or to try to negotiate an acceptable fee for some hose-owning neighbors to come and extinguish your house fire.

My generation was raised to believe in specialization. I specialize in an area, gain experience, become an "expert" at it, and sell my goods or services for money. I then turn to other people to help me with things that are beyond my expertise, and I pay them for their goods or services. However, if this "sharing economy" trend continues, though, people will return to the "jack-of-all-trades" era. Teachers, then, need to create Renaissance students with an encyclopedic knowledge. The problem with that idea is that, if 20 centuries ago, all of the world's knowledge could be contained in the 20,000 entries of Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historiae, today we create as much data in one day as the world has in those 20 centuries since Pliny the Elder.

Some of this data ends up on the YouTube video that shows you how to change your refrigerator lamp yourself, so knowledge does not have to be memorized anymore. What we need to do is to teach students to follow directions, and they will be able to do anything... Unfortunately, the ONE THING my students have the most difficult time doing is to follow directions.

So Relaxed

For teachers, summer is more than just a vacation. This is the time to reflect, to review, to plan, to devise new strategies, to discover new methods, to imagine new ways. As I was sitting in my tiny room at the MIST (Mental Institution for Secondary Teachers), I came across Netflix's corporate culture slide presentation. Netflix believes that by treating its employees like adults and by trusting their judgment, it obtains better results. One thing it sees as completely counter-productive is top-down management. I could not help to compare that to the way teachers are seen by our administrators.

When I entered the profession, the main attraction (other, of course, than the freedom to spend some time in a mental institution during the summer months) was that I was given a clear goal (to teach a specified curriculum to a number of students), and that I could then devise my own ways to reach that goal. Teaching is an art, so teachers are aware of their imperfections and constantly strive to perfect their art. Today, teachers are told what to do on every level, on every little detail, on a daily basis. Our creativity is replaced by "data-driven" point charts. The fun is gone, as we are made to feel like robots delivering pre-packaged, freeze-fried, standardized, tasteless, and odorless content. Children feel it as well, as they have become the recipients of that uniformity as well as having been reduced to simple performers of THE TEST.

It is now time for my supervised stroll in the park outside. Enjoy the slideshow.