In twelve years, learning will . . .

Let’s transport ourselves to the year 2036—quite a leap. The high school graduates of that year, our current kindergarten students, will be stepping into a world that's drastically different from today. What's exciting - and a little daunting - is that we're tasked with preparing them for this future. 

To appreciate how different the world of 2036 might be, we need only think back to 2011 and the years that followed. Remember how the rise of social media transformed how we communicate, disseminate information - and misinformation - and even how we perceive our identities? Or how the election of Donald Trump in 2016 made us reconsider the dynamics of our political discourse and exposed deep divisions in society? Or how a prolonged drought in Syria helped spark a civil war that displaced millions and reshaped social and political dynamics worldwide? Or the extraordinary emergence of artificial intelligence that has started reshaping industries and altering how we think about work and skills?  And then, of course, there's the seismic event of our times, COVID-19, which effectively rewrote the rule book of everyday life.

These events illustrate that change is often unexpected but sends ripples across all aspects of society, including education. So, looking ahead, we can anticipate that unforeseen circumstances will interact with existing trends to create a future we cannot predict. 

This newsletter explores technological advances, socio-political shifts, and environmental changes. Our aim is less about predicting the exact future and more about understanding how these drivers of change might interact to re-shape the world.  This exploration will help us imagine possible futures and plan how to best prepare our students for them.At the same time, while we navigate the river of change, we must remember the bedrock that remains consistent beneath the current: our core human needs and values. Despite dramatic shifts in technology, society, and the environment, our fundamental human desires for connection, purpose, and growth remain. Therefore, we'll consider how we can continue to foster environments that nurture curiosity, instill empathy, and inspire a lifelong love of learning, irrespective of how the outer world morphs. After all, our true north as educators lies in developing well-rounded individuals equipped with skills for the future and the timeless values that make us inherently human.

Renowned futurist Alvin Toffler once said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." This insight captures the demands of the transformative era we have just lived through, and the world today's kindergartners will grow into. It also captures the core mission of this newsletter: to build a community of educators who learn about the future together, so we can unlearn the norms that define education today and imagine new possibilities for ourselves, our schools, and our students. We aim to publish on the first and third Monday of each month. Our posts will generally be of two types. Most often, we will highlight news and research that has captured our attention and share our hypotheses about what these signals might portend. Then, a few times a year, we will offer more extended essays that attempt to pull together our thinking about the dynamics we are exploring and how they challenge our assumptions about how, when, where, and what we learn. So, if you are ready to learn, unlearn and relearn with us, please subscribe and join us on our journey to the future.