I attended the Pittsburgh STEM Summit yesterday, phenomenal gathering and a fantastic celebration of the strides being made by the business community, K-12, technical and university educational communities, and our local culture to respond to the need for a 21st century workforce. Yet an aura of caution surrounded the enthusiasm. The Pittsburgh Technology Council (host of the event) spoke of the inability of our community to fill 1600 technical jobs. Change the Equation director and keynote, Dr. Claus Von Zastrow, shared alarming statistics, for example less than one third of Pennsylvania 12th students are above proficient in math and science scores.
As I drove home, I pondered why we weren’t moving together more quickly to meet the needs. Some of the parents and teachers I’ve talked to mention how afraid they are of this tsunami force wave of technology and change that inundates ourr kids. A recent news story that a school was releasing ipads to all the students brought comments that we can’t protect them from all the arousal addictions that are packaged in these dynamic video entertainment systems (whether mind numbing games, innane youtube videos or indecent pornography). Psychologist Philip Zimbardo brings up how boys and men crave social intensity and raises some important questions about the unintended consequences of all this technology.
Fear is a healthy human emotion that calls upon us to pause and evaluate possible consequences. Fear, though, can paralyze us. It takes 90 seconds for an emotional response to cycle through our body, then we can choose a new response. I am not advocating we leap willy nilly despite fear. I am all for waiting long enough to pack a parachute, a survival kit, and the important virtues, values, and traditions of the past before we leap. But we need to leap.
Fear can cause us to lie to ourselves, to come up with reasons not to take leaps into the future. We can hide and then wake angry when we see time kicked us into the future while we hid. We are a generation taught to child proof our homes, to keep dangers away from our children. Is it a disservice to them and to our community? Does it deprive them from learning how to be careful, the gentleness needed not to crush a precious heirloom or the attentiveness not to drop a plate of good china?
Our children, our boys and our girls, will have to live in a landscape shaped by this wave of innovation and technology. Take 20 minutes to watch PW Singer’s talk on robots of war. He points out that while the US is leading the way in robotic weaponry, what happens when we no longer are?
We cannot child proof this technological world. It is no longer possible. We need to take out the child proofing, show them how an electrical outlet works and why they shouldn’t put their finger in it. We need to show them how a total stranger and a potential employer can find their address, their birthday, their passwords, their Facebook posts, and how to carefully create a digital footprint in line with a vision of their best self. We need to teach them what arousal addition looks and feels like, how to combat it, how to avoid it, and how to walk away. Self-management, that is the ability to innovate their very best selves, is crucial in the 21st century.
The greatest single factor in predicting whether or not a child will fall prey to at-risk behaviors is the extent to which they see themselves having a future. Whether we perceive the world as awesome threatening or awesome beautiful, we need to model for our children how to grasp hold of a still small voice “be not afraid” and with faith and trust and hope, leap into the future.
This week’s hero: Our area’s science and math teachers helping students pack the tools they need to survive a leap into the future.
This week’s question: What most frightens you about the future? Do you feel prepared?
This week’s free resource: Café Scientique is THE place in Pittsburgh where anyone interested in science can get together in a really cool setting to discuss today’s science issues with experts, and best of all…it’s not a lecture! After a brief introduction by our monthly guest speaker, the evening is dedicated to informal discussion, eating, and drinking. Each month a different dinner and beer menu will be offered. Recently located to Carnegie Science Center’s Works Theater with eight giant screens, a top-notch sound system, and a one million-volt Tesla Coil, Café Sci is the home of science for grown-ups in Pittsburgh. Join Café Scientifique on Monday, September 12th. RSVP Now!
