Education for the Future
There is a growing belief by social philosophers and other observers of the passing scene that we-as individuals and collectively in the form of national and world g r o u p c a r e entering into potentially unstable and uncertain times. Most of us have lived in an age of growth as evidenced by the conspicuous increase in consumption of natural resources and, as a conseauence. have develooed a mental attitude of risine expectatiok o u r unthinkingimpressions of the future are often biased by predictions based on a linear projection from past experiences. This condition is a common experience in the general populace. For example, there are intelliaent people who rannoicomprehend the rialily of our energy proh~e-m; the concept of finite resources is not avnilahle tu them as the startingpoint of a logical argument. Our point here is not to consider specific problems such as the current energy crisis, but ruther~howtodeal, from nn educational point oi'iew with future situations which are not smoothly predictable from past experience, i.e., how to deal with future discontinuities. l i t h e past, perceived potential uncertainties often yielded to the discoverv of a new . ohvsical . frontier which. in the hands of persons with special attributes, circumvented the temporary limits of mowth and expansion. Thus. manv of the classic geographsal discoveries'can he traced in pari to a perceived need for a source of material substances, or after the discovery was made, new substances resulted from them. Except for the extraterrestrial space prwram, the physical limits for expansion-growthh the cl&sical senseiappear to have been reached. Hence, mowth must occur along other, still unknown or undeveloped,lines of effort, which will require the efforts of creative and innovative people. If education is, indeed, our best hope for the solution of dimly perceived problems, we need to consider how the current educational processes encourage the development of creativity or innovation. In other words, if it is difficult to predict, let alone agree on, the nature of future relevance, perhaps i t would be useful to focus on those aspects of the educational process which might allow us to maximize creativity in our students so that they can address future problems
regardless of what becomes relevant. Inspection of the average science curriculum shows that we spendmost of our time stressing details. Perhaps this is to he expected because science is permeated by a wondrous array of phenomena interconnected by marvelously simple relationships. The phenomena often require a new (to the student) laneuaze ,. .. for their descridtion. and the interconnections frequently necessitnte unaccustnmcd mental positions for their elahration. Thus, rhr undergraduate virtually spends his entire career acquiring thr I:myunye of scienrr and mastering its use of tools, but he acquires little knowledge ut how to us+ let alone experience in using-these in a meaningful way. As onr high administrative academic official was heard to say on the occasion of the inauguration o l a university president, "While we arr producing srudc~ntswith the most astounding technologically suphistir~atedvocabularies and skills. we are failing to create imilginati\.e, literate human beings." Whatever the changing shape of society, scientists and engineers u.ill hare sssenti~lroles. \Ye have an obligation 1 0 prepare our studrnts to deal with uncertainty. Prudence would dirtace caution against exct,asiu~specialization, and in favor ofrducational oolicirs which stress flexihilitv and . nrepare . students to pursue lifelong learning. In addition, the nature of our instructional methods and programs needs scrutiny. We must incorporate techniques in our teaching which stress the development of creativity or innovation. Inquisitiveness should be encouraged. We should be more sensitive to the student who is an independent thinker or who has n non-traditional approach to the~subjrrt. Although it is difficult todescrihr creativity, let alone a process b; which it evolves in individuals, we must begin to identify techniques to encourage its development. Such methods mieht include. on the one hand. sneciallv desiened courses, or, & the other'hand, continual ekdosure of stulents to situations that. and to Demons who will. foster acauisition of such skills th~ku~hout'their formal ed&ation. T; do less would send them seriously handicapped into a less certain future than we had before us.
JJL
Volume 57, Number 9, September 1980 1 607
