The global economy is changing. Since the dawn of capitalism, markets have adapted and mutated in unpredictable ways. But the pace of change in today’s market place is different. The rapid expansion of the internet, which has rendered the distance between people almost meaningless, presents fresh challenges for how we educate our children. In a world where endless information is at our fingertips, how should we construct education plans that prepare children for a brave new future?
Our greater access to information is changing how people work and what they produce each day. As Michael Lambert, the headmaster of Dubai College, noted in these pages last week, work is no longer defined by sitting in an office for a set period on workdays. Today’s titans of industry are mobile. They are out of the office and using smartphones to always stay connected. As internet penetration grows by the day, this new type of working (and thinking) will define generations to come. It is unavoidable.
How does this translate to education curriculums? The insistence on long hours of study that translate into good marks in common subjects such as maths and science must adapt. Hard work and discipline will always be the backbone of a good education, but our children must now be taught to think beyond traditional subjects. Creativity, as much as arithmetic, is a critical ingredient for tomorrow’s knowledge economy.
The challenge is how to teach creativity. While the inclusion of the arts into curriculums is a good start, a major part of “teaching” creativity is infusing children with the passion to learn, to fail and, perhaps most importantly, to attempt.
A recent survey of 1,080 students at 14 public and private universities confirms the desire for creativity and adaptability in education. Students overwhelmingly believed that entrepreneurship and innovation must be taught at universities. But what is entrepreneurship other than an attempt at succeeding when failure is the probable result? If we are able to transform our education curriculums to teach children how to think creatively and be open to the process of trial and error, the entrepreneurial drive will be a natural result. This is one of the best investments that we can make today in tomorrow’s knowledge economy.