I had the opportunity to attend my sister-in-law’s graduation from the University of Indiana School of Medicine this weekend where she earned a MS in Genetic Counseling. I have always loved commencement, I don’t know if it’s the robes, Pomp and Circumstance, or the energy of change and opportunity for the graduates, whatever it is…I love graduation.
The commencement speaker was Dr. Don Brown, an 1985 graduate of the school of medicine. At 61, he already is an MD and holds an MS in computer science but as an avid learner, is wrapping up his Masters in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins which he should receive this summer. This is one example of lifelong learning. How might we kindle the relentless inquisitiveness of our students so that they fall in love with learning and never want to stop?
One of Dr. Brown’s points in his commencement address was about disruption in trends and our inability as humans to predict exponential change. It really got me thinking about change, why it’s uncomfortable yet unavoidable and what happens when we refuse to innovate or adapt. Here are a few examples:
-AT&T didn’t believe that cell phones would be a worthwhile investment in the year 2000, so they were late to the game and missed the chance to make a significant mark. The market doubled from 2000 to 2004, doubled again from 2004 to 2006, and again from 2006 to 2008.
-Mercedes and BMW aren’t afraid of General Motors. However, they are afraid of Apple, Google, and Tesla.
-Think about your senior year of high school. Where did you go to find information? Even if your senior year of high school was fairly recent, the avenues through which we access information have increased exponentially.
So we can’t predict the future, right? Here’s what we can predict…what we know now and use most often likely won’t be the same in five years. How are we preparing learners for a future that we cannot imagine and jobs that don’t yet exist. Even my sister-in-law’s field of genetic counseling cannot graduate enough practitioners to keep up with demand and it’s a relatively new field. She was a bio-chem double major in undergrad at Drake and didn’t want to be a doctor or pharmacist. What might our kids want to be that we cannot even imagine? Who are we to limit those aspirations because we’re not sure how to craft a pathway for them to learn at their pace and within their passion? Kids will do tremendous things when we adults get out of the way and learn alongside them.
As the newly graduated MD’s recited the Hippocratic Oath, I thought, “Why aren’t teachers doing this before entering the classroom?” Where is the educator’s Hippocratic Oath? What covenant might educators swear to uphold and defend?
Principal Pondering 