Future-Oriented Parenting, Child Care and Schooling
Introduction
The upbringing and education of children is always about their future. We want to give them the knowledge and the skills they need, so that they can later be successful in the world of work, build positive relationships with other people and find personal happiness.
To achieve this goal, we should ask ourselves questions like the following: How will today's children live in 20 or 40 years? What kind of world will they have to cope with? What challenges will they face? How can we make our children "fit for the future"? What knowledge and key qualifications will they need to be successful in their professional and private lives in 10 or 20 years?
But the fact is: Although these questions are logical, they are not asked! Strangely, people tend to think backwards. Parents ask: How was I raised as a child? Do I want to raise my children in the same way - or what do I want to change? Educators ask: How can I implement the curriculum developed for my crèche, kindergarten or preschool? Are all children acquiring the skills mentioned there? Teachers ask: How do I realize the goals and contents of the school curriculum in my lessons? Have my children learned in the last few days what they should have learned? And when asking these questions, neither educators nor teachers consider that the educational goals and curriculums are not only several years old, but that they were created or updated with the present in mind: What additional knowledge and skills do children need today?
But we do not want to educate and raise our children for a life in the past, but for a life in the future! Then they have to prove themselves. That's why we urgently need to rethink, i.e. consider how living and working conditions will develop in the coming years and decades, what qualifications our children will need then and how we can lay the foundations for there future success now.
This is the goal of future-oriented education. In this online text future developments are analyzed that are expected to occur in the coming decades - up to around 2050. From this, skills are derived that today's children need in order to be successful in their future careers, to build positive relationships with other people and to find personal happiness. Afterwards it is described how families, daycare centers and schools can make children "future-proof".
Future trends and the skills needed in the coming years can only be predicted with a high degree of uncertainty, since it is ultimately unclear how the future will develop. It is also difficult to teach skills that will probably be needed in the future but are not mastered by today's parents, educators and teachers. Children and young people should therefore develop learning abilities, creativity and flexibility so that as adults they can acquire the skills they need themselves. But the values and attitudes conveyed to children and young people will also play a major role in the future, as they help determine how the next generation of adults will deal with major challenges such as climate change, environmental pollution, population aging, immigration, knowledge explosion, technological innovations, etc.
This online text does not contain quotations or references. Sources and additional information on future trends and other topics addressed here can easily be found on the internet.
Contents
Future Trends: What Skills Will Our Children Need for the World of Tomorrow?
Making Children Fit for the Future: Required Skills
Making Children Fit for the Future in the Family