Building the Future 

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to

those who prepare for it today

(Malcolm X)

What teens may not yet understand is that, as Malcolm X suggests, education is the passport for the future. All individuals can charter their destiny forward and the doors that will open for them depends a lot on their self-discipline around skill building, engagement in learning, and education. 

With the impact of digital saturation from overexposure to technology and social media, many teenagers and even young adults struggle with focus as they become conditioned on to fast moving positive reinforcements with clicks, notifications, follows, and likes. In a globally-connected world, youth are saturated with digital communication and messaging that tires minds which seek more dopamine reinforcement. Over time, youth can lose their connection to the why of learning as they struggle with tiredness, focus, and engagement.  

Meanwhile, the world is accelerating in the midst of a digital age revolution with AI automating  or even replacing jobs. New HI (Human Interface) jobs which require human to human interactions around problem-solving, service delivery, and technical oversight are emerging, but at a competitive global and multi-national scale.

For youth to be successful and make a future for themselves, they need to be able to thrive in change as well as build strong technical skills, advance communication for working across diverse and remote teams, and have innovation abilities to critically think while solving challenges in new ways within a rapidly changing society. The future requires highly skilled technical knowledge, and by having a strong foundation, learners will be future-ready. 

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Such bold initiatives cannot be met within traditional generalist models of education because students need to engage in pathways of learning with structured cohorts, flexible  exploration, and self-paced mastery so they can have concentrated skill focus as well as extension activities according to the strengths of their learning styles. This approach fits within a differentiated learning community model where students are engaged in their learning and teachers are able to concentrate on teaching instead of managing focus or even behavioral issues. 

As Educators we can help high school learners to ...