Preparing Students

In What's Most Valuable? Creativity, Empathy, or Technology from @DavidGeurin Blog,  David Geurin states,

“We cannot afford to prepare students for the world we grew up in. We must prepare them for the world they'll live in.”

Too many times I have heard older people talk about how education was in the good old days. I’m sure at the time, no one thought the system was good enough because everyone feels at the time that it never is. It is easy to look back and think that it was but was it really?

Back in the “good old days,” society was different. So were expectations and needs. If you go back to days when computers didn’t exist, there was no need for computer education. But does that mean that period of time was better than now? No.

Years ago, students didn’t have calculators and if they had one, they weren’t allowed to use them. Now students have them and use them. Why not use tools that are available to them?

Years ago, teachers used filmstrip projectors and not TVs and videos. Now they are a useful tool in the classroom and very effective if used correctly. Should we not take advantage of these tools that are available to us?

I’m sure people felt that way when cars were invented. People probably thought horse transportation was the best. That doesn’t mean the same thought applies to today’s world. Should I not use my car today because someone thought horse travel was better years ago?

Now that driverless cars are coming out, a lot of people are saying that it may not be a good thing and how they are afraid of them. Progress can be scary but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

We need to prepare students to be successful in today’s world, not the world we remember growing up in.

How do you prepare your students for today’s world? Please share.

 Photo by Doug Kelley on Unsplash