Not the Same Old Job Market
Source/Author: Mike Murphy, Headmaster
April 08, 2016
The cell phone, tablet or computer you are using to read this article will be the weakest pieces of technology our five year olds will ever use. I recently heard The Chief Educational Evangelist from Google, Jaime Casap, make a similar statement. He commented that the Internet had not been invented when he was in high school. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon had not been started when he entered college in 1987.
What might have happened if he had been directed to a high school program that focused him on a single career path? I understand why parents may want their sons and daughters to have a clearly defined major before they begin their university studies. College can be an expensive investment. Even if an 18 year old is fortunate enough to have discovered a field in which he or she wants to focus for a career, we can be sure that the career is going to change dramatically in the time between freshman year and the end of graduate school.
Twenty years ago, surgeons were not being trained to use robots. Lawyers had huge libraries of books they needed to research past cases and rulings. Computers have replaced those libraries. People memorized information that is now accessible to anyone who is able to connect to the Internet. Knowing how to think, how to analyze information, how to work with experts from many fields and knowing how to adapt to change have become essential skills for anyone who plans to thrive in the modern workplace.
Mr. Casap said something during his talk that seemed important. Dr. Lisa Bianco shared this thought in her weekly newsletter a few weeks ago. I understood him to say that asking a child, “What do you want to be?” is old school language. He suggested that we start asking children of all ages, “What problem do you want to solve?” If every person was given time every day to work on the solution to a “problem” he or she would like to resolve, our schools, businesses and homes (garages) would become innovation studios! Many of them already have.
There is nothing wrong with working for a great organization. Yet, the new middle class will be made up of people who are using their talents and creativity to provide solutions and innovations for the world that is coming our way.
Efforts to encourage our children to build, make, code, communicate and collaborate will be preparing them not just for university study but for lives where they can have choice and flexibility as the work environment changes. Cheers to all the teachers and parents who are encouraging their children to become passionate problem solvers. The future will be in their hands.
Cheers!
Mike
