Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 34

Kids & Education
BRAVE NEW
WORLD
Edward Johnson, Deputy Head of Prep School at Brighton
College, examines the shape of jobs to come and how we can
best prepare our children to prosper in an unknown future.
Q: “How can we prepare pupils for
jobs of the future?”
A: In Aldous Huxley’s 1931 dystopian
novel Brave New World, the world
was a place where technology dom-
inated human compassion. Though
the world we live in today is far from
the bleak picture Huxley paint-
ed, the predictions made in similar
books and movies have come into
clearer focus, leaving us uncertain of
what’s to come.
34 WANDERLUST
To our children, the technological
tempest we live in is not just science
fiction but something that is very much
a part of normal, modern life. What’s
more, children are already riding the
digital wave, and we, as teachers, par-
ents and mentors, must move with the
times, too. In fact, when it comes to
preparing our children for jobs of the
future, we need to ask whether schools
are actually doing enough.
Today’s leaders are already facing
challenges their predecessors never
experienced. From economic uncer-
tainty and political volatility, to an
increasingly complex global mar-
ketplace, we are steering our ships
through much turmoil. Throw in the
unrelenting advancements in tech-
nology, and it is difficult to envisage
the challenges that tomorrow’s lead-
ers, our children, will face.
As teachers and parents, this is
our brave new world. But it’s one we
must embrace to bring out the best in
younger generations as they approach
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