Question: What do a futurist, a “brain scientist” and 132 people have in common?

Answer: They were speakers and participants in the Vancouver Future Search Symposium March 15-17.

The symposium was conducted by Vancouver Public Schools to generate strategic planning for the next five years, and beyond, say to 2019, the full 12-year cycle for students who started this year. But wait, there’s more: a full public engagement as close as your computer. The online survey is available at http://www.vansd.org/future_survey.

In addition, talks with those involved or served by schools, and several focus group discussions, are on tap. By December, the school board could take official action to implement a plan resulting from this activity.

This is the second generation strategic planning effort. The first was in 1989, and carried the district to the present operation.

What of the future?

Ask futurist Ian Jukes of Canada, who told the Symposium audience he has talked to 400,000 people in the past year. In 15 years, Jukes has made 7,000 presentations to audiences in 40 countries and most states of the U.S.

An educator by training and practice, Jukes seems eminently qualified to gaze into the crystal ball of technology, and learning. His style is unorthodox—a feisty, in-your-face delivery that informs and irritates in equal doses. No one sleeps in his “classes.”

He says the growth of technology is increasing at an exponential and extraordinary rate. In 1979, he said, a computer and accessories cost $5,000. In 2007, the cost is $800. By 2019, it could be $1.37. We have lived in a world of “relative stability.” Now we’re in a world of “fundamental uncertainty.” Information and new technology are coming at us so fast, it’s hard to keep pace.

An article by Jukes, “Rethinking Education in the New Digital Landscape,” challenges education methods based on tests, textbooks and teaching to pass the test. Symposium attendees received copies of the article and found Jukes also took issue with memorization as a learning tool. Why have students memorize the names of state capitals, he wonders, when they can be instantly identified on a computer?

Different stages of learning

Our next cognitive boost came from Bob Sylwester, emeritus professor of education, University of Oregon, whose field is “brain science” linked to learning. Talking to us without notes, this 78-year-old outlined the growth of the human brain which, he said, “takes 20 years to develop.” He said the first 10 years a child learns survival information and skills; the second 10 are devoted to productive and reproductive learning, bonding and making commitments. Ages 11 to 14 represent “an incredible development period.” He supported arts and humanities and sports, “a form of art.” In written material, Sylwester observed, “the arts (encourage) us to move with style and grace.”

Between these bookends of enlightenment, we worked—eight people to a table— brainstorming ideas and suggesting pathways to a better education. Topics: individualized education; progression of a student based on mastery of a subject, not age; giving students more voice, as “consumers” of education; building math, science and language skills for the new age of a global economy; adjustments in the school day and year; engaging parents in education; schools as “hubs” of their communities; the need for flexibility in education to retool to match changing needs. Ideas from each table were shared with the full symposium audience. We were a diverse group—students, parents, community representatives, teachers, principals and associate principals, classified staff, school board members, superintendent and deputy superintendent.

As one person noted, “We are preparing children for their future, not our past.”

“Our community is our family,” said school board member Edri Geiger.

True to her words, community businesses picked up the cost of the event—an estimated $23,500—and Vancouver traded city space for school space at no charge.

It was a standout event, a model for any organization proactively facing its future.

Tom Koenninger, chairman of the Vancouver School District’s Management Task Force, is editor emeritus of The Columbian. Reach him at tom.koenninger@columbian.com.

This column was published in The Columbian on March 28, 2007 and is posted on this website by permission of the author.