Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it

So OK, I was born into a ‘nice’ middle class family…I was raised ‘well’. They realised the value of education, more than that, they cherished it! My education came before everything; and yes, they sent me to private school. They gave up plenty to guarantee my future; working all hours, going without for themselves and I am not ungrateful. They were living examples of the ‘middle class model’. I ended up with ‘A’ Levels and a university degree…. A successful, secure professional career followed; I even ended up with two children and a dog.

But that was then and this is now! My parent’s generation; those retiring today, have lived in different times; economically, socially, culturally. Many experienced the security of a job for life, having worked in between 3 to 5 different roles in their working lives. Those that went in to higher education were virtually concreted into a successful and stable future. Today we are told that our children will have on average 18 to 25 jobs in their working lifetimes…the vast majority will be self employed, working on short term contracts for periods of between 18 months and three years…One third of last year’s university graduates still don’t have stable, graduate level jobs. Wow that scares me! Well it would I guess, it is a world I was not ‘trained’ for.

The last few months; the recession, the crunch and the crisis spell the end for some, for many, now hunkered down waiting for the storm to pass. Suddenly middle England is in the middle of the vacuum and boy that is new! All the old certainties have gone…I have thought about my old school friends for the first time in twenty years; most became financiers or accountants…the great jobs, jobs as safe as…well The Bank of England. Just before the ‘downturn’ 0ne in three people working in London worked in the financial services sector, nationally that figure is one in five.

The future is here and truth be told, we weren’t ready for it…we weren’t prepared for it…we weren’t taught to deal with it. So we are seeing the end of a generation; Generation ‘X’, Thatcher’s children…It is time for Generation ‘Y’ and beyond. The generation that the media and safe society has written off! You see here is the problem; my generation and the Baby Boomers before me have been educated to preserve society and to work within it, however our ‘safe generations’ have caused the three greatest threats facing us as a species; the economic, environmental and socio-ethnic crises were created under our ‘watch’ but we don’t have the answers, it is time for the next generation and in reality, the generation beyond that.
Education in my mind has one purpose; to prepare our kids for their futures…that’s it! To do that we need to find the courage, creativity and commitment to ensure that it does. We all know what the problems are and we all know that more of the same is not going to do the job! Our future will be built around our ability to be entrepreneurial, enterprising, empowered. So the critical question is how are we going to ensure that our schools and colleges educate and inspire our children to be that way? Beyond the tests, the monitoring, the accountability the ‘playing the game’ how are we going to make the difference?

We are living in a new world, a world where the ‘soft skills’ have become the ‘hard currency’. This is not optional and it is not about another reform or strategy it is about a dramatic transformation. The production line model of schooling must end because we no longer live in a production line world. We need to create a system that develops the individual; our children must leave schooling not knowing what they can’t do, but what they can. Ask yourself, ask them: Who am I? What makes me unique? How do I communicate it, use it, develop it and how can I apply it to contribute to our futures?

The moral imperative is simple; as teachers and people with influence over young lives we need to look forwards not backwards, we must model by taking risks, standing up for what we believe. We must ensure that education is more about them and less about us…we must put creativity, flexibility and individual growth at the heart of our vision and practice in the great words of the ancient African proverb:

TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO PREPARE FOR IT