Being Creative-Collaborative

The world has become unpredictable in many ways. Consider the exceptional weather we are having lately, delayed rains, short-cold winter, snow in summer in Australia. Consider the economic crises. Consider the governments and regimes. As we enter these modern times many things will become more and more uncertain.

However, one thing is certain. Going forward the most required thing would be to be creative and collaborative. How important is this can be judged from who gets paid a lot these days.  Look at Technology,  Media, Design, Finance, Governance, Diplomats -if you can be creative and collaborative then you are in demand.

These very qualities are also required for our future. Consider the challenges we will face in future. We will have to tackle global warming, create a world-wide stable financial system, take-care of aged and growing population, feed the masses. All of these are enormous tasks and they absolutely require you to be creative and collaborative.

So how are we training our children for such a future ? The answer is  - Not at all. I find that in school we are still worried about fixed curriculum, standardized teaching and standardized evaluation. Batches after batches of students who are judged individually on their knowledge of topics which are not very relevant. Next generation is being educated for things which are going to be useless to themselves and to the world.

We should be teaching children how to collaborate, how to accommodate diverse of opinions, how to compromise, how to re-train and adapt. How to compare, infer and integrate. Dealing with people and coordinating will be more important in future. To use technical terms - next generation should be trained not to design "products" but "solutions".

There isn't much hope that existing schools will/can adapt themselves for this challenge, in time. We will have to build system parallel to schools, where kids mix with others, brainstorm, collaborate and create solutions to their immediate and pressing problems. Then they would be ready to take on the tough future that they will be facing.