What skills do we take with us?
Another week another ~1000 miles and 4 ferry rides of presenting across the state of Washington. Started the week being honored to do the opening at my alma mater Central Valley School District where both my parents had long careers as well as the district where I got my first job. A full circle moment for sure.
Ending the week at Orcas Island High School (hence the ferry) talking about generational understanding and AI.
My talk on generations and generational perspectives, specifically how it's impacting schools, continues to have people reflecting on how our generational upbringing plays out in our classroom as teachers, parents and students. One fact that I love sharing is for Gen X (1965-1980) the average age in the United States that a child spent one hour at home along with no adult supervision was age 9. Today for Gen Z (1995-2012) & Alpha (2013 - ??) the average age is 15. And even with that...they're really not 'home alone' as their cell phone tracks there every moment. Now....are kids really that much more immature the we use to be? Or did societal norms change? Did parenting change? There is no biological evidence to show kids are less developed at this age so it's something else...and that something else....impacts the entire system.
These same societal norms weigh on schools and what is expected of schools, what is expected of the system in supporting children and families. It also causes us to wrestle with AI in our lives, in society and in education. What causes a generational divide is a "Transitional technology" the personal computer divides Gen X and Millennials and the Internet divides Millennials and Gen Z. In every transition society goes through it asks us to question what do we want to take forward? What do we leave behind? That's what we're wrestling with again. What skills and knowledge do we take forward and what skills and knowledge do we leave behind?
I think of my grandfather, who until the day he passes sharpened a pencil with his pocket knife. He learned how to do it in 3rd or 4th grade, and yet at some point we decided, because of technology, because of social pressure and norms, that this was no longer a skill worth teaching students. Now we can debate whether or not we should be teaching students today to sharpen a pencil with a knife, but the reality is....we don't. We, society, decided our time, students time, was better served learning a different skill that would prepare them for their future.
As we continue into this new era of AI we're debiting what do we take forward? What is worth memorizing? What is worth knowing? What does it mean to be knowledgeable in this new era? All while we focus on preparing students for their future, not our past. These aren't easy questions to answer and we need to struggle with them and will struggle with them for awhile. Transitions take roughly 5 years and we're only at the beginning of this one!
