The 4th Industrial Revolution? Ah, We Need To Become All Learners!

It's 2 months old, but it's new even to me who am a digital, wide-reading old foggy – 79 in September. Richard Barr says he knows "8 Things Every School Must Do To Prepare For The 4th Industrial Revolution" (22 May 2019, forbes.com). Now:

Broadly:

About the images above, the main image comes from Mr Barr's article; the superimposed one from my external 22-inch ViewSonic monitor. My views:

(1) Mr Barr's modern classroom is too orderly, too regimented for modern learning. Too formal for children to start enjoying themselves and learning much as a result!

(2) Mr Hilario's modern monitor is too cluttered – but that's exactly how I think! at the beginning of writing. And clutter is exactly where to begin teaching the children.

What I'm saying is that the opportunities for clutter belongs to every man, woman and child trying to learn something, especially in the digital universe we are in now.

Specifically:

Here are the 8 things Mr Barr is recommending every school should do:

(1) Redefine the purpose of education.

(2) Improve STEM education.

(3) Develop human potential.

(4) Adapt to lifelong learning models.

(5) Alter educator training.

(6) Make schools makerspaces.

(7) (Cultivate) international mindfulness.

(8) Change higher education.

I am pleased that:

Mr Barr says, "According to The Future of Jobs Report 2018 from the World Economic Forum, executives desired employees with critical thinking and collaboration skills even more than those with tech skills" (italics mine). Everywhere, critical thinking is necessary; so is collaboration.

All learners should be taught collaboration!

Mr Barr quotes from Alvin Toffler's Future Shock: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn." After 50 years, Present Shock is that we have hardly learned to learn, unlearn and relearn!

I say, those children in formal schools – and in homeschools – should be taught not only critical thinking but more so creative thinking. For instance:

Critical or logical: 1 plus 1 equals 2. Creative: When is "1 plus 1" not equal to 2? Answers: Look at Mother Nature. Turn to Religion.

So, to redefine the purpose of education, in any art and science, we must learn to think critically and creatively.

By the way, you will note that in (7) above, the beginning word is enclosed in parentheses: (Cultivate). Mr Barr's original list begins with a transitive verb (like "Alter educator training") but not his #7, so I added that verb. Everybody needs an editor.

Mr Barr claims in Bernard Marr & Co (bernardmarr.com) that he is the "No 1influencer in the UK." I don't doubt that; I also don't doubt that he needs the #1 online editor in the world, me!

Mr Barr says:

We still need to help students understand the values that will help us learn how to use (any) new technology ethically and morally…

Yes Sir, technology must be used ethically and morally.

We must give to God what is God's, and to man what is man's in the name of God.@517