Predictions by a Demographer

Comments

1. Ethel Mertz says:

   3/22/2006 at 1:03 pm

   “Craig Hitchens will be a District Superintendent”

   Deanna Cook-Shannon, 2004
2. spiritofpublicus says:

   3/22/2006 at 6:15 pm

   You make an excellent point Citizen Joe. Predicting future enrollment isn”t the only prognostication being done by local school boards [Hudson, New Richmond, Sommerset, et al]; statements made at the February Hudson School Board meeting indicate that now school districts feel obligated to base their curriculum on the jobs of the future and globalization.

   At the February meeting, Board President Annette Cook along with other members and district administrators were relaying what they learned at the January WASB Convention. Ms. Cook stated it was apparent that the method of learning forty years ago was not adequate to prepare students today for the jobs of tomorrow. This statement was readily affirmed by others on the stage. A bold statement which is missing a vital piece of information; specifically what types of jobs are we suppose to be tailoring our curriculum for. The correct answer of course is we simply do not know. Therefore, dangerously government education is embarking on a path to design curriculum based on an unknown event in the future. The progress of civilization for several thousand years was not on account of an educational system – ability to predict unknown events. Citizen Joe, some of the erroneous predictions and lack of foresight you illustrated were made by some extremely bright individuals; more so then you would find on the stage of a school board meeting. Genius is not in an ability to predict, but in the ability to use universal knowledge and truth to dream and invent. The truth of the matter is that the future today is no different than it was a hundred or thousands of years ago.

   Board member Dick Muenich expressed concern over preparing students for globalization. But ever since man first stepped on the Earth we have had globalization. Globalization has evolved from the footpaths of Rome to the journeys of Marco Polo to Columbus to the radio to high speed internet. Again just like the future, globalization today is in reality no different than years gone by.

   One thing is certain about the future; those who believe they can predict it are doomed to failure. It is dangerous enough to conceive 85 million dollar building plans based on a prediction ten years away, but it could be catastrophic to base our children – education upon the same premise

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