The Future Is Here!

The world community is evolving at a rate never before witnessed since the beginning of civilization.  We must prepare our children now for jobs and life styles that are yet to be created.  Reading, writing, speaking, and computing will always be essential to education.  Now, they are no longer enough. The sciences, the humanities, the arts, math, language arts, and health will always be the essential curriculum of education. Now, they must become vehicles for developing the cognitive, social, and work skills needed for the adult world in which our children today will live, work, play, and continue to learn.

A culture does not change over night. The future for our children is evolving now. The American people have a long history of being able to reinvent them selves and stimulate progress. This time, however, it is not only a national imperative but a global evolution.  First, the world is rapidly becoming everyone’s marketplace.  Our children are no longer competing with each other for jobs in their community or state.  From the manager of the local McDonald’s to the corporate executive officer, they will be competing with children from China, Brazil, India, and Yugoslavia for their jobs in this country and in many other countries.  Second, the world is rapidly becoming a “high tech planet”.  The industrial based economy is being transformed into an information based economy.  The applied technology that supports this economic base will continue to develop ways to play, live, and work that once were only in our imagination.  Perhaps most important, this technology is not bound by the limitations of national borders.  It drives the demands of the global marketplace.

It is imperative that business, parents, educators, and policymakers rise to the challenge this future presents our children.  As your child’s school district tackles the initiative to prepare their students for success in their adult life, we all need to engage, support, and participate.  That has never changed.

More information will be shared with you as it is prepared.  For a closer look at the impact this initiative to prepare our children for their future will have on education – and what those skills are, visit:

www.21stcenturyskills.org (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills), www.ncpublicschools.org (The North Carolina Department of Education),

www.ncintheworld.org (The Center for International Understanding, the

             University of North Carolina),

www.techceocouncil.org (Technology CEO Council) and

www.iste.org (International Society for Technology in Education).

www.criticalthinking.org (The Critical Thinking Community)

www.kwfdn.org (KnowledgeWorks Foundation)

www.iftf.org (Institute For The Future)

For a closer look at the studies and the research, visit:

www.national-academies.org  (National Academy of Sciences,

           National Academy  of Engineering, Institute of Medicine)

www.nano.gov (National Science and Technology Council, National

           Nanotechnology Coordination Office)

www.ncforum.org (The Public School Forum of North Carolina)

www.doe.gov (U.S. Dept. of Energy)

www.ed.gov (U.S. Dept of Education)

www.21stcenturyskills.org (Partnership for 21st Century Skills)

www.iftf.org (Institute For The Future)

www.kwfdn.org (KnowledgeWorks Foundation).