Dear Parents,
Perhaps you recall my opening comments at the Back to School nights, during which I suggested that the world of today is dominated by rapid change. I said that change, especially change in technology, is proceeding at an exponential rate. This was certainly not news to anyone. Yet, concrete examples of what is possible enliven my generic statement. The following are sample prognostications from a website of which I recently became aware—techcast.org:
- By 2022, cancer will be cured.
- By 2028, we will have artificially controlled body parts.
- By 2040, the average lifespan will be 100 years.
What does this kind of information have to do with education? Everything!
As the world changes, the nature of work for our children will be changing, which in turn is changing how we need to prepare them. In such a world, two aspects of our Sacred Heart education become absolutely essential:
1. We need to educate our children to become agile learners.
We are not able to teach our students everything they need to know! Consequently, we need to teach them how to learn, how to adapt what they learn to different contexts, how to take initiatives and risks (in their learning and in life) and how to figure out how to answer questions – especially questions which can’t be Googled. An aspect of agility in learning requires that we inculcate in our children the understanding that mistakes are NOT the enemy, rather they are the key to success.
2. We need to provide our children with meaning and a sense of purpose in life.
It is increasingly imperative that our children need to experience an authentic connection with Love’s Very Self. It is our belief that this interior connection, this relationship with the Creator of All, will provide our children the capacity to live a life from the inside-out with courage, confidence and clarity about the importance of Life and Love (whom we call God). This will develop in our children a reverence for others in all our relationships (especially reverence for those who are different or marginalized), a reason to engage in ethical decision making and a compass for living a life of integrity.
May we support and encourage each other in empowering our children in both of these characteristics, thus preparing them well for their future,
Maureen Glavin, rscj
