Living and Loving – September 2019

78 | SEPTEMBER 2019 | L&L

H

ands up if you remember

memorising key dates in

history, or making sure you

could rattle off the times

table in your sleep. For most of us, this

type of rote learning – usually imparted

by a duster-wielding teacher standing

in front of a blackboard – was the

alpha and omega of the school day.

Of course, we were being prepared

for a world where factual recall

would stand us in good stead. Our

children, on the other hand, are

unlikely to need this skill, because

robots will do the memorising and

regurgitate information for them.

They will, however, need to develop

other skills to help them succeed in

careers we can’t begin to imagine.

What kind of schooling

will your little one need for

the world of tomorrow?

Lisa Witepski investigates.

EDUCATING

FOR THE FUTURE

Reading, writing

and arithmetic

As Sameer Rawjee, founder of the

Life Design Lab at Google and CEO

of O-School, points out, reading,

mathematics, biology and science

are the building blocks of education.

You can build on them and augment

them, but if they’re not in place,

you won’t be able to go very far.

Then again,

they’re

not the only

requirements

for success in our

children’s world. Bailey

Blake, head of schools

at SPARK Schools says,

“As the world becomes

more automated, what

differentiates us is the

ability to collaborate and

corroborate. Adaptability

is also key, because our

children will need to be

able to fit into an ever-

changing context.” Linked

to this is the notion of grit,

perseverance and passion

• but it doesn’t end there.
  Lisa Illingworth of
  Futureproof maintains
  that the skill set of the
  future is encapsulated by an
  entrepreneurial mindset – not just
  in terms of having the qualities
  required to start a business (although
  those are undeniably useful, too), but the
  accompanying abilities, like “being able to see
  the world as an integrated set of systems, and