Today’s schools – creating tomorrow’s world

EDUCATION Week 2018 isn’t until August but this week the Secretary for the Department of Education Mark Scott launched this year’s theme which is: “Today’s schools – creating tomorrow’s world.”

The push is to get schools future-focused, “preparing and equipping young people with the skills, the knowledge and the capabilities they need to lead and flourish in tomorrow’s world.”

Let’s say tomorrow’s world is 2030, when kids starting kindy this year will graduate. So, what does the 2030 world look like? I predict watermelons will be square... oh, hang on, that’s been done, but perhaps by then square fruit will be the norm and the kindy kids of today will be growing or selling box-shaped fruit for ease of distribution, to... Mars.

If the NSW Department of Education is thinking about the future, you can guarantee delegates at the World Economic Forum are too.

They’ve released five predictions of their own which are even stranger than cubeshaped food.

Apparently our kindy kids will be saying goodbye to their screens and instead use light field displays which project 4D images directly onto our retinas.

They’ll be saying hello to their pet ‘Crispy’. Not a chip, but CRISPR (Continuous Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats).

Gee, what a future to look forward to! Before telling you what it is, remember when the idea of cloning anything seemed so unnatural and horrifying and something that would never happen? This is worse.

CRISPR. Our kindy kids may be embarking on careers where they cheaply and reliably edit genes. Their family pet might be a genetically engineered tiger the size of a common housecat.

The downside? Genetically engineered humans.

If you’re looking at little Johnny who’s come home from school this week, shirt hanging out, lunch stains down his front and a gold star on his alphabet book, try to imagine him bio-facturing.

There’s a real chance he may one day grow organs or skyscraper frames “grown” from bedrock to the clouds by an array of microscopic creatures.

From my side, I just sure hope little Johnny can spell.

We’re only up to number four. Ads. You won’t be able to breath without an advertiser knowing it. The same biometric technology that monitors your health will be the best friend to your shopping habits.

And we thought things were over the top now!

Lastly, your junior of today will be wearing, if not designing or marketing, “implantables”. Got eyes with 20/20 vision? Well in 2030 you’ll be attaching an infrared zoom lens to your vision making it 20/1, more like a hawk than a human.

I do hope our public schools remember to include other skills for the future like how to make great coffee, read a fantastic book and love their mum.