 Education Week |
A recent Special Report from Education Week, “Schools and the Future of Work,” takes a hard look at the skills “students need to succeed in the uncertain, intensely competitive workplace of the future.” Meanwhile, the reform group America Succeeds just published its own read on the issue, Age of Agility, which examines what the changing workplace means for businesses, employers, students, and schools.
To continue the conversation, we invited Jason Gaulden, one of the authors of Age of Agility, and Dan Scoggin, co-founder of Great Hearts charter schools, to share their perspectives on how schools can best prepare today’s students for tomorrow’s world. Is it about gee-whiz technology and “twenty-first-century skills”? Or, counterintuitively, is the best preparation for the future an education that goes back more than 2,000 years?
Enjoy!
__________________________________________
America’s anachronistic education system
By Jason Gaulden
We’ve entered the “Age of Agility,” argues America Succeeds’ communications director, an exciting and unsettling time in our nation’s history during which workers and businesses will have to adapt to rapidly changing workplace circumstances driven by the rise of automation and artificial intelligence. Addressing this upheaval must begin with a rethinking of America’s K–12 education system. Every city and state must urgently convene business leaders, policymakers, and educators who can work together to develop entirely new education and training systems, including networks of truly diverse schools and personalized learning. Read more.
__________________________________________
The lasting value of a classical liberal arts education
By Dan Scoggin
The problem Jason Gaulden identifies in “America’s anachronistic education system” is very real, agrees the co-founder and chief advancement officer of the Great Hearts charter school network. But the solution is not new education models. Instead, the best way to prepare American students for an increasingly fast-paced and fast-changing future is to offer them a classical liberal arts education. That’s because a well-stocked mind and well-nurtured soul will be the best provisions for the uncertain journey—because they always have been. Read more.
