Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource (2014)

Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource (2014)

Jamie Merisotis
November ten, 2020

Every bit Los Angeles residents look to a new seal of approval for assurance that "Stem schools" are delivering what they claim, perhaps we should consider whether such a unmarried-minded focus on scientific discipline, technology, engineering and mathematics goes as well far.

The rapid spread of automation, bogus intelligence and robotics in the workplace, accelerated by the pandemic, volition create Stalk jobs. But nosotros need to empower many more children and adults to live fulfilling lives than STEM fields can arrange, and this will mean going beyond the emphases of these programs.

To equip Americans for a future no one tin fully imagine, nosotros must teach them to reason ethically, think critically and develop their interpersonal skills and problem-solving creativity. The dangers of declining to do so abound, even in STEM fields.

"The Social Dilemma," a Netflix docudrama, explores the demand for more ethical approaches to technology — approaches that can reduce the dangerous man effects of social media, including addiction, lower self-esteem and loneliness.

Rather than scour school rankings for the best Stem programs in Silicon Valley or the San Francisco Bay area or fret over a school'southward STEM "seal of approval" in Los Angeles, a future with human being work requires that we take steps in another direction.

If non, we risk repeatedly falling into the trap the software developers in "The Social Dilemma" encountered, often with the all-time of intentions. Today, these technology leaders, who worked for Facebook, Google and Twitter, are critical of the influence their creations exert over American democracy and our everyday lives.

The motion-picture show is scary, simply we shouldn't fearfulness all new technologies. Nor should we view STEM educational activity equally the antidote to concerns near rising racial and economic inequality in a changing workforce. Smart machines volition brand some jobs disappear — many already have — merely they will be replaced by amend jobs. People just need to be set for them, and this implies a fresh take on the liberal arts.

No one tin can predict the futurity, but solely focusing on Stalk, limited technical pedagogy, coding camps or preparation that develops narrow skills won't deliver what people need. That's because man capacities such equally critical reasoning, empathy, upstanding behavior and others honed through wider learning cannot be automated away.

Technical skills count, but the power to utilise them to solve problems volition affair more. Besides, technical skills are always irresolute, which is why everyone needs to continue learning throughout their life. Our power to acquire may be the most important skill of all.

Instead of performing repetitive tasks on an assembly line, workers in manufacturing are needed to gear up and guide the machines, repair them and perform the more complex parts of the task, including tasks that crave creative solutions. The aforementioned dynamic is playing out in industry later industry.

So the good news is that our hereafter is about human work — the things just people can do. Skills and knowledge matter, just workers must be able to employ them to solve issues in rapidly shifting work environments. It's no surprise that more and more piece of work involves working with other people.

As AI-enhanced technology extends its accomplish in fields like healthcare, educational activity, retail and hospitality, people are needed to focus on the human element. The hereafter of working involves helping and serving others — using technology and other resource to empathize and help solve people's problems.

These same abilities are what nosotros and so desperately need for people to exist agile citizens in our increasingly complex and diverse world.

Addressing the complex problems that threaten our democracy and lodge — the ascension of authoritarianism, the legacy of structural racism, the existential threat of climate change — demands citizens take the college-level abilities that homo work requires.

And merely as human work requires learning throughout life, there is no unmarried point where someone "graduates" every bit an active and engaged citizen — it is a fashion of being that must be fostered and developed.

As we set our children for the future we need to look away from the brusque-term benefits of focusing on which fields atomic number 82 directly into the job market. It's about work, work that allows usa to be fully human, relating to others and deriving satisfaction long after the pay premiums of more than-technical fields fade.

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Jamie Merisotis is president and CEO of Lumina Foundation and author of the book Human Work in the Age of Smart Machines .

The opinions in this commentary are those of the writer. Commentaries published on EdSource represent diverse viewpoints about California's public teaching systems. If yous would like to submit a commentary, delight review our guidelines and contact us.

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