adrienne
@adrienne
I think a lot about how to prepare my kids for the future. My generation grew up believing the key to success was getting good grades so you could get into a good college so you could get a good job and then you would climb the career ladder and be set for life. About a decade ago I realized this is no longer how the world works and I started to believe the key to success was to focus on skills over credentials. It didn’t matter any more what college your degree is from, it matters whether you have the skills that are in demand. As a parent I wanted my kids to learn practical skills for the future. I pushed STEM because I believed they are hard, practical skills and there will always be jobs for scientists and engineers. But there’s another big shift underway and focusing on skills is no longer enough.
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adrienne
@adrienne
The half life of skills keeps shrinking. The half life is how long it takes for a skill to become obsolete. Skills you learn today will not be the same skills you need in a few years. For example, I learned to code in Visual Basic and could get high paying jobs easily in the early 2000s but by 2005 I couldn’t find a job unless I learned a new language. How do you raise kids in a world when you don’t know what skills they’ll need? The skills of the future are meta skills and have more of an EQ slant, considering we can have our AIs handle the IQ. Here are the things I want for my children: - a love of learning and natural curiosity - self confidence and agency that they can learn anything and do anything if they choose to - a business sense, understanding of markets - positive sum mindset, build something new - and most importantly do not resist change! try new things, don’t get attached to the past
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adrienne
@adrienne
I live in suburb of NYC and my kids attend a public school where most of the kids are high achieving. Kids are straight A students, getting high SAT scores, and getting into top 20 universities. They also have private tutors and private college counselors. There is such a focus on achievement as measured by grades and the ranking of what college you get into. And there are high levels of anxiety. In both the kids and the parents. I think academic rigor is important for my kids but I’m much more focused on having them develop these meta skills I listed above than getting straight As. I don’t know for sure whether I’m preparing them the right way for our unknown future, only time will tell, but I am listening to my gut on this one and choosing to not follow the herd.
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Daniel Lombraña
@teleyinex.eth
When I finished my engineering degree at the University they told me that they thought me how to solve problems. That day I didn't get it, but nowadays I cannot be more thankful for that. I strongly believe that success is a mix of knowledge and solving problems. Giving your kids the ability for themselves to try to solve problems is the best way to get the a successful future because not matter what, if they have the knowledge and are not afraid of solving problems they will find their way. Unfortunately universities and high schools have become, at least in Spain, a place where being autonomous is noblonger an option. The new generations panic with small problems because always a teacher or a parent solved the problem for them. Add into the mix now AI. We need more autonomous people with critical thinking.
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gFam.live (UrbanGladiator)
@gfam
Love this. I'm sure learning Visual Basic helped you learn other languages a lot quicker even though the language itself may not have been used as much. I do also think it's important to learn the things that AI might be able to do, just so we'll be able to figure out when it's wrong or inefficient.
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Leo
@lsn
And teaching kids to be anxious doesn’t help! They should be taught to have confidence in themselves and to have agency ! Which is the exact opposite!
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Plants
@plantsnft
Bingo. Hell yes. This
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Christina BorrowLucid | Chones
@borrowlucid.eth
pretty sure overnight construction work on freeways to avoid fucking with rush hour traffic, and overnight agriculture harvesting to finish before crops are old, have plenty of rigor, even though it's not academic - kind makes learning about themself and following their interests very high priorities :)
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