Learning for the 21st Century

Article by Daniel Greenberg

I recently cleaned my office and came across this article that I tore out of a 2000 issue of Paths of Learning, a now defunct magazine dedicated to progressive education. The fact that  it has survived numerous office purgings speaks volumes for its relevance.  When it finally gets down to me versus paper, I can be pretty brutal.

According to Daniel Greenberg, Arthur Andersen, the world's largest consulting firm, organized its fourth annual international conference on "Learning for the 21st Century." The conference brought together people from all over the world (businesspeople, educators, government officials, consultants, etc.) to both hear and discuss what leading thinkers had to say about what the school of the future will look like.

Greenberg was amazed by the fact that despite the diversity of the many presenters, there was "virtually unanimous agreement on the essential features of the 21st century society and the type of education that would best meet its needs."

The following features of the type of education needed for the society of the future are taken directly from Dan Greenberg's article in Paths of Learning and were also printed on the Opinion Page of the Metro-Daily News and in The Sudbury Valley School Journal, volume 29, number 6, June 2000, and retyped by moi since there isn't a digital version to be found!

• First and foremost, this century will be one of constant, rapid change. To be an effective member of society, an individual will have to be able to function comfortably in a world that is always in flux, with no long-term stable platforms, no secure havens. Knowledge will continue to increase at a dizzying rate, and people will have to be life-long learners who know how to seek out and master what they need at any given moment of their lives. This means a content-based curriculum, in which a body of knowledge is imparted to students, is entirely inappropriate as a means of preparing children for their adult roles.

• People will be faced with ever-increasing individual responsibility to direct their own lives and determine their own futures. To this end, children must grow up in an environment that stresses self-motivation, self-initiated activity, and self-assessment, and thereby provides the skills and self-confidence to map out their own destinies. Schools that focus on external motivating factors - on teaching (as opposed to learning), on top-down management, on rewards and punishment for meeting goals set by others - are denying to children the tools they need most to survive.

• Central to everyone's successful functioning in the 21st century will be their ability to communicate with others, and thereby to share experiences, collaborate, and exchange information. Conversation, the ultimate means of any communication, must be a central part of any good school. Students will have to have ample time to talk to each other and to their teachers, thus honing their skill at increasing their own insights with the help of assistance from others.

• The world is moving rapidly toward universal recognition of individual rights within a democratic society. Specifically, this signals an increase in the empowerment of each and every person to participate as an equal partner in whatever enterprise they undertake. This implies decentralization of power and the granting of full participation to every stakeholder in every institution. The implications for schools is clear: all interested parties will be given a role in running educational institutions, especially students and teachers.

• Technological advances are proceeding at an unimaginably rapid pace, and these in turn are profoundly impacting the way all people, children and adults, access information. Year by year, it is becoming easier for people to learn whatever they wish, whenever they wish, in such manner as they wish.

• New research is continually reveling that children are avid learners, that they have an immense capacity for concentration and hard work when they are passionate about what they are doing, and that the skills they acquire by pursuing any area of interest are readily transferable to any other subsequent field. Giving children more freedom to follow their own inclination keeps their joy of learning and love of challenge alive, enhancing their satisfaction in life and their ability to contribute to society.

• The bottom line of all this was clear to the Conference participants: Schools of the future will be far more democratic in structure, far more respectful of each member of the community, far more tolerant of individual variations and far more reliant on self-initiated activities than were the schools of the 20th century.

Comments

[dr dre beats headphones]

so good!