FERMO G.

RAMOS EDUC 301 Advanced Educational Philosophy

Ph. D. Educ. Student DR. ISAIAS A. BANAAG

LEARNING FOR TOMORROW

by Alvin Toffler
Introduction

As an educator, how would you make your learners ready in facing the
challenges of the future? How would you make them adaptive to the drastic changes
of this world? How will you make them learn not just to read and write, but also to
learn, unlearn, and relearn?

Summary

Tomorrow will not replicate today.

Alvin Toffler throughout the article expressed his interest in the future of
education. He emphasized that although childs education takes place in the home
environment, the present influence of the schools can be changed to promote more
futuristic thinking. Toffler says that the image of the future can be grossly inaccurate
and eventually the education system would not serve its true purpose which is to
develop the youth.

Jumpstarting the thoughts of his essay, Toffler takes for example the nature of
education of the Indian tribe of the Old America. There was no formal education in
the tribe but their boys and girls were taught with the life skills, values, and rituals
that would prepare them for the future. The nature of learning is constant, because
they believe that tomorrow merely repeats yesterday. From a reconstructionist view,
Toffler said that the tribe mens assumptions are dangerously misleading. He adds
that a false image of the future destroys the relevance of the education effort.

Toffler adds that the worlds situation today is very much different than that of
the past. We are now bombarded with technological, social, and info-psychological
changes. These changes are accelerating and we witness that the old industrial era

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structures can no longer carry out their functions. Our leaders today blindly assume
that the main features of the present social system will extend indefinitely to the
future. This is wrong. The fast-paced changes in the world mean the swift arrival of
the future that is radically different from the present. Most schools, Toffler adds
based their teaching on the usually clear notion that tomorrows world will be
basically familiar.

Educators really need an image of tomorrows society. This image must

include the possibility of the high likelihood of radical change. Educators must make
explicit assumptions about where we seem to be going that we can formulate
sensible goals.

Toffler further contends that what applies to the educator and the institution
applies even more strongly to the learner. Students today receive a vast amount of
undigested information and misinformation from every media. As a result, they are
aware of the rapidity with which the world is changing. Many young people are
prepared to contemplate the idea of radical change in the real world but they dont
have the slightest idea about the implications of high-speed change for their own
lives.

With the purpose of determining whether or not students have provision for
change in themselves as well as provision for adaptation to a world with change
Toffler conducted an experiment. He asked the respondent students to come up with
a collective image of the future. Results showed that the teenagers do not look
forward to a stable world. Rather, they look forward to high turbulence. For them
future happens to somebody else. The students made no provision for adaptation to
a world exploding with change.

Finally, Toffler said that he believes the schools and universities create
millions of candidates for future shock by encouraging the separation between the
individuals self-image and his or her expectations with regard to social change.
They encourage the student to think of his or her self not as subject to change,
growth or adaptation, but as something stationary.

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Reflection

The illiterate of the 21 st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler

Society is in need of constant reconstruction or change. Such social change

involves reconstruction of education and the use of education in reconstructing the
society.

All education, whether so intended or not, is a preparation for the future.

Unless we understand the future for which we are preparing, we may do tragic
damage to those we teach. I am in consonance with Toffler in his notion that
education today must not be static. Not static in such a way that it must not be
confined to old beliefs, old traditions and concepts. It is true that education must take
into account the radical changes of the society. If indeed education nowadays would
be delivered the same way as it is fifty years ago, we would only create a culture of
shock as we will feel left behind by the advancement in technology and the society
as a whole. We teachers must become the catalyst of change who must raise
awareness among our students in adapting to the changes of the society.

What I understand on Tofflers essay is that it would want to convey that there
is the need for drastic change in educational methodology, that is, the way in which
information or a learning experience is dealt with by both teacher and student. We
teachers must make use of such things as classroom theater, games, and
roleplaying, which would be particularly suited to incorporating ideas concerning the
future in our students studies. Since the future is unknown, but predictable in many
cases, this playacting could allow for greater freedom of thinking about future
possibilities and help individuals consider more seriously what type of future they
would like to see as well as possibly bring about.

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 In addition, I believe the very concept of future can be closely tied in with
motivation for learning. If a student realizes that his or her actions may help to alter
the future, this student may well be motivated to learn more about the present in
order to see what actions might be taken now to bring about a future that would be
more desirable to him. And the fact that studies involving a consideration of the
future would very likely to be quite interesting to most individuals, at least some
aspect of their schooling could be enhanced, and their minds stimulated and excited,
by introducing the concept of the future as a new motivational factor.

As a final note, I believe and agree that what Toffler would want to convey is
that as teachers we must have the capacity to make our learners acquire the ability
to visualize futures, to be able to generate and discard thousands of assumptions
about events that have not yet, and may never, become reality that makes man the
most adaptive of Gods creation. Therefore, it is necessary that one gain every
advantage of becoming more and more adaptable to ones environment in a time
when the rate of change is increasing at an ever-accelerating pace. A serious
consideration of the future is unquestionably an adaptive advantage to those who
wish to live long and happy lives.