Our future competitiveness may be softening
“You were lucky. We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out. When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt! But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.”
Monty Python – The Four Yorkshiremen.
Every successive generation is challenged by predecessors of a general softened. In part this is due to improving technologies and quality of life as societies have modernized. But there is an underlying consideration that our future competitiveness may also be softening.
This past week I had an interesting conversation regarding the risk aversion of school closures. Many aspects of school attendance have changed over time, but the potential liabilities and younger ages of school attendance certainly factor into decision to suspend schooling. Through casual observation, it would appear the frequency of closings has marked gradual increase.
In my home, I have children that seem to anticipate school closure with the forecast of snow flurries, and in most cases their aspirations are realized. I am not certain this experience is beneficial long-term, as the private sector cannot accommodate this expectation.
From the perspective of business, how does this cancelation stimulus affect culture. If school systems are a catalyst of experience, how is this impact demonstrated?
When children are released from the care of the school system, there is an impact on society. Childcare must be rapidly engaged and in some cases options are unavailable. Public sector government offices will slow, and with increased frequency close. Today, there is an observed sensitivity in the business community to restrict office hours in the face of anticipated inclemency.
My thesis is not to modify the rigorous and challenging decision cycle the public school board must go through when evaluating school closures and student safety, but to investigate the medium-term impact to culture, specifically commercial culture.
As future leaders are being nurtured with a hypersensitivity to weather related impacts, how will these leaders administer our future? Will businesses relying on export market relations close when it storms on P.E.I., thus reducing competitiveness and growth? Will future health-care workers decline work shifts when transport is a slight challenge?
Incremental change in behavior can be amplified when evaluated overtime. The workforce we are creating today needs to be assertive and globally competitive; is weather sensitivity doing them a future disservice? Could policies be considered where bussing is discontinued, but infrastructure remains operational when travel becomes a challenge. Operational costs of staffing, heating, amortizations, etc., continue daily regardless of conditions. Could parents make informed individual decisions on school attendance, but infrastructure remains engaged?
The business environment is competitive and unrelenting regardless of local issues, this is observed daily.
A reflection on how we are not only educating our future but culturally preparing them for adaptation must be evaluated. For many, the school system is the most influential force our young developing minds are exposed to as they form their future contexts.