Job Trends
In the mid-20th century, one could become a bank teller, cashier, receptionist, telephone operator, mail carrier, travel agent, typist, newspaper reporter, data entry associate, or telemarketer (low-level white-collar employees) with only a modest education. However, these 10 careers will be replaced by automation by 2033, according to a recent Oxford University study. The easy-to-secure jobs of the past quarter-century will not exist in the very near future. Many of the new jobs projected for the future will be carried out by machines.
With the advent of driverless vehicles, we will need fewer taxi and truck drivers. “Smart” computer systems with voice-recognition software will supplant the need for their human counterparts in sales and customer service. In today’s world, it is not tangible manufactured products that generate large amounts of wealth; it is innovative ideas like new apps for digital devices. This job trend data tells us that the only jobs that will not be automated or offshored will be the innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors.
With automation, average corporate profits are now at an all-time high (particularly banking revenues are included), while average individual wages are at an all-time low. Corporations are investing more of their profits to purchase hardware and software products that reduce labor costs. A new touchscreen tablet called Presto allows dining customers to make meal, drink, and dessert selections without ever interacting with a waiter or waitress, and there’s no waiting for a paper check to arrive. Thousands of wait-staff jobs are being eliminated nationwide. There are record gaps between the salary of the average worker and that of their CEO, and when charted, the two trajectories continue moving in opposite directions.
Although deceptive politicians point fingers at either the current administration or the opposition, technology and robotics are making millions of restaurant, manufacturing, and assembly line jobs obsolete (referred to as “technological unemployment”), while online stores are rapidly replacing the brick-and-mortar “mom-and-pop” small businesses. Recognizing these undeniable job trends, how is our education system re-inventing itself to produce “the best brains possible”?
Changing Brains
Homo sapiens have been on Earth for approximately 150,000 years. For us, memorizing the intricate details of an extremely uncertain predatory environment has often meant the difference between finding a meal today and being one. Learning to adapt to the terrestrial, aquatic, and amphibious environments determined the data points for the early hominid actuarial charts.
It was not “survival of the fittest” that dictated longevity, but survival based on the fastest adapting brains to an ever-changing world. Quick adaptation to change, as well as one’s ability to be creative and innovative today, will distinguish those who thrive from those who may barely survive, if at all. Most brain connections are not hardwired. One of the most important concepts we should be mindful about is that human brains can change — and human brains do change, because all brains are fundamentally designed to change in order to survive change. With the full knowledge of the consequences of the technology and information explosions, we must modify our schools to accommodate changes in this direction.
The early human brain broadly “downloaded” the global environment in an attempt to encode, process, and understand the surrounding world, giving special attention to all threats and opportunities. A vital feature of our complex adaptive body-brain system was the amazing ability of our nomadic ancestors to remember the locations of, as well as the distinction between, these two. It was not just memory skills, but critical and analytical thinking skills that evolved over the eons. Whether one’s world was largely positive or negative was irrelevant to a degree — navigating it safely and reproducing were the imperatives.
Changing Our Schools
We know that particular environments can nurture and accelerate innovative thinking and novel idea creation, while others can impede innovation well before it ever starts to germinate. With that in mind, educational futurists need to focus more on the needs of the contemporary learners rather than on the institution charged with serving them. Students should know that the classrooms they are entering are truly dynamic creative-learning spaces, as opposed to lifeless walled-in rooms where all answers are prescribed, all thinking is controlled, and increasing test scores is the school’s primary mission.
Creative learning spaces are best recognized by their ability to produce “light bulb moments,” sudden new revelations, first-time “fresh” connections, and inspiring epiphanies. Here, the environment is punctuated with more “Ah-hahs!” instead of timidly asking, “Is this the right answer?” This second reaction tells us that the learner’s primary motive is not the pursuit of success as much as the avoidance of failure. In contemporary education, closing the achievement gap is often a written goal. However, what are we doing about the widening gap between what is currently transpiring in our educational systems and the job requirements of the future world?
