Page 27 - Brave New World

THE ENGLISH SCHOOL MA GA ZINE 2021

MY 5 YEAR OLD RECENTLY PROCLAIMED In a 2018 interview with Channel 4 News UK, Harari said that above
THAT AT THE AGE OF 35, HE WILL BE A all, we will need mental balance, the creativity to constantly reinvent
ourselves and navigate the flux of changing environmental pressures.
FOOTBALL PLAYER, A YOUTUBER, AND Harari admits that he has the luxury (and discipline) to switch off
A BUILDER OF FANTASTICAL WATER from technology for one month each year. This helps him find clarity
and focus away from the overwhelming volume of information. He
PARKS. ALL AT ONCE. claims that this makes him more efficient and prolific in his work as
He elaborated: he had recently conjured up the waterparks, professor and author too. Healthy detachment is crucial, as is making
committed their designs to paper, and delivered a pitch on all three the time and space to meditate and build core personal stability in a
time of rapidly changing demands.
occupations to his loyal apprentice: our two and a half year old. The findings of the Deep Time Study echo this. Last spring, 15 French
Everything was going to plan. volunteers spent 40 days in a cave, without electricity, daylight, phones
The following statements competed for space by way of response:
1. Don’t be ridiculous darling, you can’t have three jobs at once. or contact with the world. The study was designed to investigate how
our brains and bodies adapted to the absence of contact and how we
You have to choose one. created solutions to measuring time. It’s expected that such changes
2. Of course my love, you can do anything you like, if you put your
mind to it. will be forced upon us by climate change in the not too distant future.
3. You may have a point young man: perhaps the idea of three jobs One participant said it was like pressing a welcome pause on life.
is not as childlike as it first sounds. Two thirds of participants apparently wanted to have stayed in the
I opted for the safe and dangerously indulgent number 2, with a cave a little longer.
note to self to further explore why 3 also seemed valid. The examples above may seem far fetched, but the reality of the
It is the case that the notion of a single job that lasts one a whole last year and a half has forced us to adjust to constant change. Every
lifetime is becoming obsolete. This goes beyond the familiar debate plan that was made for school life was quickly rendered useless and
that we must embrace the teaching of transferable skills for an ever demanded further transformation from all. This proved draining,
changing job market. It means more than having the ability to think anxiety inducing, and everywhere the rallying cry was “Wellbeing”.
critically and analytically, and to communicate effectively across Lockdowns are anticipated to be part of our lives in the coming
almost all fields of work. decades, due to pandemics more severe than the current one, as well
Educators and historians of the future now argue that most of the as climate change. My young family already experienced this living in
jobs our students will eventually do have not yet been invented. One Northern California till 2018, where weeks and months of ‘stay at
such intellectual is Professor of History, Yuval Noah Harari, acclaimed home orders’ had become the annual norm of Fall. The vast, by now
author of ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’ and ‘21 Lessons for unavoidable and uncontrollable forest fires in Sacramento and Sonoma,
the 21st Century’. He believes that the rapid revolutions of Information brought so much ash in the Bay Area’s atmosphere hours away,
Technology and Artificial Intelligence mean that we cannot know what making it for a while the most polluted place on earth. It was a whole
the job market will look like in 30 years. It follows that we cannot know new world for us and my then 3 year old (of the 3 jobs fame) embraced
what skills will be relevant for the world of work. it better than I did.
This is both frightening and liberating. This is our brave new world of opportunity as parents and educators.
Frightening to think that our children’s future will be defined by A chance to listen to our young people’s ideas and solutions, to
such a degree of changeability, “a cascade of ever bigger disruptions” strengthen their core confidence in taking ownership of these realities
as he calls it, that will make circumstances extremely volatile. and inventing within them.
Liberating because we can start to concern ourselves a little less It’s vital that we go beyond paying lip service to young people’s
with the ‘safe’ but deluded notions of relevance of skills and training wellbeing in times of crisis. Let’s embrace rather than cover up how
to specific jobs. We can instead focus on social and emotional different their future already looks to ours, and boldly adjust
intelligence, flexibility in work ethic, resolve and resilience, spirituality, ourselves as their educators and parents, by contradicting our own
humour, character. rigid safety nets. For this we must stand still and dig deep, discover
and plant roots of resilience and creativity. We’ll nurture wellbeing
PLANTING
with flexibility, fun and fanciful notions of ever changing endeavours.
THE ROOTS OF

RESILIENCE

Maria Papagapiou - Inclusion Officer viewpoint

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