Teaching in the 21st Century: “Plain Vanilla Just Won't Make It!”

By Brother Raymond Meagher, F.S.C.
Assistant Professor of Ed ucation
Manhattan College

The New York Yankee Organization has decided to leave Yankee Stadium – to leave the “house that Babe built.” This is a difficult time for Yankee fans because they are losing a place of tradition containing an extraordinary history of baseball. The Yankee organization is building a new playing field for the 21st century. Yankee fans must adapt to this new playing field.

Similarly, a new “playing field” is evolving in the world of the 21st century. The new developing field is the result of major, even explosive, advances in technology and communications. This new radically different field might be characterized as a Global Competitive Playing Field – with millions and millions of new players, and era of new, even uncharted, ways of conducting business. Like Yankee fans, Americans, especially educators, will need to adapt to this new playing field because it is our world of the 21st century.

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat (2006), describes this new fast-paced, challenging and unpredictable 21st century playing field when he stated, “It is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in a real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on more equal footing than at any precious time in the history of the world – using computers, e-mail, fiber-optic networks, teleconferencing, and dynamic software.”

America and our long run of prosperity are being challenged. The rest of the world is catching up and surpassing us in regards to educational achievement, economic competitiveness, and in the areas of innovation and creativity. There is no such thing as an American job and this Global Competitive Playing Field. It is just a job and it will go to the smartest, most productive, and cheapest worker – no matter where he or she lives (Friedman, 2006).

Our young people will be competing for these jobs against their peers in other countries and jobs and professions will go to those who have the right knowledge, skills, talent, work ethic, and passion. The question that needs and answer is: “Are our young people being prepared with the skills needed for this 21st century Global Competitive Playing Field so that they will be players on this new field?”

My basic premise is that “plain vanilla just won't make it” in the new 21st century. Teachers need to ask themselves, “What is that something extra that I need so that my students will not wind up on the bench as mere spectators?” “How do I take simple vanilla tasks, add that something extra and unique, to make my mission and impact special and relevant to students?” Obviously teachers must offer something “more,” therefore, they need to be something “more.”

THE AMERICAN RESPONSE

The bedrock upon which our society has been built is education. America has had the best engineers and scientists building and protecting our nation. We have led in the medical and research professions. We lead with business entrepreneurs and pioneers in the world of technology creating jobs, products, and new businesses. How did Americans get to be the best in their fields? Ed ucation certainly is the initial and significant factor.

Our priority must be education. We need to get serious, as we have been on notice that for years the quality of our graduates has depreciated, and is no longer competitive. American 15-year-olds are tied for 21st place globally in math and science (Meredith 2007). Simple logic is, if we don't prepare our young people for the new Global Competitive Playing Field, then our young people and our country will no longer enjoy its preeminence. A first-rate education system is of primary importance.

Is our current educational system preparing our young people for this new 21st century field? Howard Gardner (2006) stated, “I believe that current education prepares students primarily for the world of the past, rather than for possible worlds of the future” (p.17). Are our present educational structures modeled on a no longer functional industrial society? Is change vital?

Our “key is to come up with a more strategic and effective plan of action that gives our young people the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century. We need to expunge the old approach that “we have always done it that way.” We need to confront the future by not just using a rear-view mirror and focusing on where we have been, but use our windshield to see the future. What is ahead for young people? What kind of changes do we need to make? What do we have to do, as educators, to keep our future leaders at the top of their game? How do we adapt to the needs of the 21st century? Today's methodologies will not enable our young people to be successful in the knowledge-intensive, high-tech and globalized economy of this century.

SUMMARY

Our world is changing. We are living on a new fast-paced, challenging, and unpredictable Global Competitive Playing Field. This new field is radically different from the 20th century playing field. It has changed the world economy, the way we live, and the way we need to educate our young people. Plain vanilla just won't make it on this new field.

Are we prepared for the challenge? Are we developing a strategic and effective educational plan of action so our young people will not be competitive but will thrive on this 21st century field? The stakes are high for both our young people and for our country.

 

References

Friedman, Thomas, L. (2006). The World is Flat . Farrar, Straus, and Giroux: New York

Gardner, Howard. (2006). Five Minds for the Future . Harvard University Press: Boston, MA.

Meredith, Robyn. (2007). The Elephant and the Dragon . W.W. Norton & Co.: New York-London.