Minds for the Future

In Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner defines and nominates five mentalities that he deem essential for preparing us for the near future.

Disciplined Mind – mastery of schools of thought, profession or craft.

Synthesizing Mind – ability to integrate ideas from difference spheres into a coherent whole and communicate it to others. The author notes that this especially important in a time filled with ‘dizzying’ amounts of information.

Creating Mind – ability to think about new ideas, unfamiliar questions, new ways of thinking. The creating mind ‘seeks to remain at least one step ahead of even the most sophisticated computers and robots’.

Respectful Mind – awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings.

Ethical Mind – fulfillment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and citizen.

I agree these are key mindsets we should have in the world of today and into the future, particularly the Synthesizing and Creating minds. However, the author testifies that he has considered a large range of other mindsets and is willing to defend his selection ‘vigorously’. Having said that, he then opts to use partly or mainly anecdotal evidence when expanding on these mindsets. It might be the case that possessing the five he suggests might be sufficient to lead to those other mindsets. However, his case might have been more clear if he did in fact went into more details as to why these minds over the others he has briefly listed: technological mind, digital mind, market mind, democratic mind, flexible mind, emotional, etc. Nevertheless, this was an insightful article with lots to draw inspiration from.

The parts that stood out to me were mostly in the sections that delved into education:

“In our cultures of today – and of tomorrow – parents, peers, and media play roles at least as significant as do authorised teachers and formal schools.”

This put into words something I realised in my journey through this course. One or two years ago, I don’t remember the exact reasons but I went on a science documentary spree for a couple of months. Binge watching any and all scientific documentaries I could get my hands on via Youtube (back in highschool, I wasn’t very interested in the STEM subjects, particularly didn’t understand physics). But it was amazing that as my older, early twenties, self I was able to not only comprehend complicated ideas in physics but, by the end of my custom Youtube ‘course’, was able to synthesize the concepts I understood and arrive at (through my own means) other existing physical concepts. This experience made me appreciate the beauty of other disciplines and the importance of integrating all these fields to better understand the world we live in, and also gave me the confidence to pick up astronomy.

The internet and all its wonders have opened up a world of resources many times more superior than any singular school or university. And that is not to say schools and universities are redundant, they still serve us in many other ways shall we choose to pursue a discipline.

Which leads me to my other epiphany, which is the more important point: media is empowering. I finally understood the role communication and media play among other disciplines in the world. It is one of the most effective, perhaps more direct and intuitive than our current form of formal education, in communicating to, educating, and inspiring people. This ultimately changed my purpose in studying media. Rather than wanting to be an experimental filmmaker, I was suddenly imbued by a greater passion, purpose, and responsibility to affect the world, and perhaps, to communicate to, and share with others the beauty, the possibilities, and opportunities I have discovered.

“The empires of the future will be empires of the mind” – Winston Churchill, as quoted in Five Minds for the Future.

In light of our current pace in technological innovation, and trajectory toward practicality and efficiency in labour, many have been thrown into an growing global ‘existential’ crisis – our jobs, on which we have built our identities, will all eventually be replaced. We as humans are urged more than ever before to seek our ultimate value in society. What are we here for? Why do we work? What part of us cannot be replaced by robots and computers? Some think that it is our ability to be creative, to make random leaps from thought to thought. Will general artificial intelligence once day be capable of that too? Only time will tell. But we might not need to constantly compare ourselves or compete with the machines we design in order to set ourselves apart from them. Being creative, be it in the arts or the sciences, is a unique individual endeavour; and often lead to the most significant contributions to society. Unlike any other skills, I don’t believe we will ever have too many artists, too many inventors, or too many intellectual thinkers.

Last but not least:

“…I’ve discovered a particularly Sisyphean goal: “leading the world in international comparisons of test scores.” Obviously, on this criterion, only one country at a time can succeed.”

Perhaps out of superficiality, I was greatly amused by Howard Gardner’s analogy for policymakers’ vacuous proclamations about education goals. Having said this, I think the contradiction beneath is one that needs to be addressed. The importance of finding a meaningful purpose or value in education is something that society – parents and young people themselves – needs to realise as well.

 

 

 

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