Five Minds for the Future

As Weigal and Gartner pointed out, “Both the demands of the workplace and the demands of education have changed profoundly and promise to do so for the foreseeable future.” The more I learn about the history of education, the more I realize how little it has changed over the last hundred years. The table in the “Looking Back and Peering Forward…” that charts the 5 W questions plus more concerning institutional educational development is exciting looking forward as an educator and somewhat depressing looking back as a student. All of this week’s reading got me thinking about global citizenship and social activism. Growing up in what has been a largely complacent, inactive generation driven by consumerism, it is inspiring to look to the future that is already growing citizens with “five minds for the future” having the equalities of “disciplined, synthesizing, creative, respectful and ethical.” (Weigal and Gartner, 2007). What is even more inspiring about it is that although this is what the current students in our schools are growing into, this is also a possibility shared by all ages that want to embrace it. It reflects an ideal of a continuing, self directed, collaborative education. This naturally stresses a teacher’s role as both facilitator and learner, but not director.

Is digital citizenship and global citizenship the same thing? When we consider the 6D brain of the 21^st Century Fluency Project and its fluencies, they are. If our guiding principles are “leadership, ethics, accountability, fiscal responsibility, environmental awareness, global citizenship and personal responsibility,” we are definitely headed in the right direction.

One of the most exciting aspects of this shift in education will be that students who have been stopped at a skill /drill level by an outdated school system due to different learning styles will have access to education that encourages flexible, higher level thinking instead of enforcing the order of skill/drill and only after that-if there is time- higher order thinking. If we view students as co-architects of their learning, “different” learning styles will be more acceptable. Education will be more self-directed and therefore more truly differentiated for all students. This has and will continue to be a slow shift in the American educational system. There is still the issue of funding and access on a basic level here in our country and in developing countries.