“How can we prepare ourselves and our children for a world of such unprecedented transformations and radical uncertainties?” – Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Yuval Noah Harari, in his novel 21 Lessons for the 21st Century does not give us straight answers to his question. However, his question is important for educators to consider in a time where COVID-19 has magnified the radical uncertainty we are working in and preparing our students for. Even before the extreme uncertainty and fear precipitated by the pandemic, I feel like many of my students (juniors and seniors) already had unprecedented feelings of uncertainty. Working closely with students when they got involved with Fridays for Future, I listened to them as they expressed their concerns for the future, in the context of the climate crisis. Greta Thunberg’s question, “And why should I be studying for a future that soon may be no more?” resonated with so many students, especially when they felt their learning was not relevant to the reality of the world. As a millenial I have many of the same concerns as my students about the climate crisis and the future that will be so different from the generations that came before us. How do we support our students in this uncertain future? How do we adjust our teaching recognizing this new reality?
In an inspiring letter to his students, “To Expand the Moral Imagination in the Confines of Quarantine” Philip Metres asks, “What if this time of isolation is a chance to go into the desert of the self, to wrestle with our own demons, and to re-emerge with a clearer sense of purpose?” I would like to re-emerge into the classroom with a clearer sense of purpose in terms of what our students really need for the future.
“What kind of skills will he or she need in order to get a job, understand what is happening around them, and navigate the maze of life?” – Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Obviously, we cannot predict the future but we must recognize that our world is rapidly changing. Unfortunately, our educational approach to meeting these changes is often slow and based on antiquated ideas of absorbing content, memorizing facts and regurgitating information for grades. Harari argues that “Much of what kids learn today will likely be irrelevant by 2050,” especially if you consider that content based courses are irrelevant in a world over inundated with information. Online learning has certainly highlighted that much of the content that students need to learn is readily available online.
What is lacking online is guidance and motivation to learn complex skills. When we return after this pandemic, surely we cannot just “go back to normal”. The world will be a different place and our students will “need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and unimportant, and above all to combine many bits of information into a broad picture of the world” (Harari).
“How to live in a world where profound uncertainty is not a bug, but a feature?” – Yuval Noah Harari 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
To survive and flourish in such a world, you will need a lot of mental flexibility and great reserves of emotional balance. You will have to repeatedly let go of some of what you know best, and feel at home with the unknown. Unfortunately, teaching kids to embrace the unknown and to keep their mental balance is far more difficult than teaching them an equation in physics or the causes of the First World War.”
Harari’s advice to young people is to “embrace the unknown” and the best way to teach this is by embracing the unknown ourselves and re-examining what really matters in the classroom:
- Disruptive thinking requires courage to make a real change. It demands that educators and students alike need to think outside the box, question the status quo and admit they don’t have the answers. Considering some of the decisions world leaders have made during this pandemic it’s obvious students should be taught to question authority. This means that educators need to be vulnerable enough to allow this kind of questioning in the classroom so students feel safe and build confidence to be able to question when things are not going right. I think Greta Thunberg has been a key example of this; students should be disrupting a system that does not appear to be beneficial for our future.
- Compassion is so essential for addressing the problems coming in the future. Metres reminds us that, “The ones who will pay for this are, as always, the poor, the working classes, and the marginalized. While some have bunkered themselves in a castle of toilet paper and Purell, others have lost their jobs, living on a paycheck that will not come.” Similarly, Harari reminds us that “of all things in the world, suffering is the most real” and our ability to teach our students to recognize and address others’ suffering is key to building global communities that focus on cooperation rather than competition. Students involved with TECHO at my school have already started brainstorming with me about how we can help the most vulnerable populations. I believe their initiative comes from years of working on this project and really understanding how poverty causes suffering. Fostering compassion should be one of the main goals of education.
- Flexibility has been a key feature of adapting to the pandemic crisis. I love this post by educator Ken Buck:
“We gave educators almost no notice. We asked them to completely redesign what school looks like and in about 24 hours local administrators and teachers “Apollo 13’ed” the problem and fixed it. Kids learning, children being fed, needs being met in the midst of a global crisis. No state agency did this, no so-called national experts on curriculum. The local educators fixed it in hours. HOURS. In fact, existing state and federal policies actually created multiple roadblocks. Local schools figured out how to do it around those too. No complaining and no handwringing – just solutions and amazingly clever plans. Remember that the next time someone tries to convince you that schools are better run by mandates from non-educators. Remember that the next time someone tells you that teachers have it easy or try to persuade you that educators are not among the smartest, most ingenious people in society. And please never say to me again, “Those who can’t do anything else just go into teaching.” Get out of the way of a teacher and watch with amazement at what really happens.”
Clearly, educators and students alike can adapt to dire situations. In the same vein, we can adapt our teaching to other pressing situations such as the climate crisis and the need to teach students innovative skills.
- Resilience to the difficulties COVID-19 has brought with it magnifies once again how important this skill is. To be able to handle stress, accelerated changes and the anxiety that comes with it is so important for our students. Harari argues that “Most important of all will be the ability to deal with change, to learn new things, and to preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations.” I worry a lot about our students’ mental health but worry doesn’t help them. Instead we should empower our students by offering them tools of resilience such as mindfulness and techniques to handle stress and anxiety.
- Finally, we have the two versions of the 4 Cs – critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity or Metres’ 4 Cs: compassion, curiosity/complexity, creativity, and courage. Both emphasize skills. The huge adjustment to standardized testing this year conducted by the College Board, includes the allowance of an open book test which essentially proves that education shouldn’t be measured by what you can remember but by what you can do. Flexible options for students to show their skills in real life applications can foster the creativity, curiosity and collaboration that we need for the future
As the times show, change is our only constant and education needs to keep up! We may not have all the answers but as the responses of educators to online teaching shows, we are capable of extraordinary things and returning to “normal” will not be the same. Rather it can become a positive adaptation to our changing world.
