Pete+and+C+2009

This keystone session was the highlight of the conference. Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Johnny Bunko, spoke on the future of education. Admittedly not an educational expert he goes on to explain how our educational system is preparing our kids for the 21st century using a 20th century education model. "We need to prepare our kids for their future, not our past", this phrase says it all. This explains his perspective on education in this country. If you have read "A Whole New Mind you would be familiar with the 3 Causes that are changing the game, Asia, Automation, and Abundance. **Asia** will be taking away the jobs from this economy that perform "routine" tasks. Since we will not be able to compete on these types of jobs we will have to prepare our students to problem solve, think critically and collaborate. This would allow us to still maintain market dominance in the future. **Automation**, refers to software replacing left brained, routine tasks, thus taking those jobs out of the market. We will need to prepare our students not for jobs that use left brained, routine, logical skills but ones that use creativity, collaboration skills, high concept high touch abilities. **Abundance**, we live in an age of abundance in this country, everyone has a tv, refridgerator etc. Students will need to be prepared to create new products and ideas to make sure that we keep our market edge. Our students must be able to answer these questions, 1. can someone overseas do it cheaper? 2. can a computer do it faster? 3. is what you are delivering in demand in an age of abundance? If you can answer yes then that would be a poor career choice. If you can answer no then odds are that that field is going to be one in which our students can compete and be successful. So here are his top five things that he recommends schools can do to prepare our students for their future. 1. Experiment with new metrics, we need to develop new metrics that measure 21st century skills. Our assessments (PSSAs, SATs, etc) measure left brain skills not the right brained skills that our students will need. 2.Get real about STEM, we need to change how we view science and technology. Students can find facts and right answers, we need to teach our students observation, creativity, and problem identification skills. 3. Tear down the walls, we need to bring content areas together. We need multidisciplinary, multilingual, multifaceted workers who are able to think systemically, innovate, work in multicutural environments, lead people, and have life long learning skills. This can only happen if we tie curriculum together among disciplines. 4. Infuse arts education throughout the curriculum, not ornamental but fundamental, creative arts are no longer a frivolous luxury but essential to achieving a competitive edge. 5. Promote and defend Autonomy, the more we give teachers and students autonomy the more we will unleash their potential.
 * __Dan Pink "A Whole New Mind"__**