Education and the Scientific and Technological Revolution

T h e paradox we are facing is this — the trad itiona l system of education takes 12-20 years to p repare people for life, th a t being th e usual tim e span accepted today, and this p repara tion has actually to equ ip people for life fifty or m ore years ahead, because their active lives will last th a t long; b u t the m ethods we use corre­ spond to today’s and no t to the fu tu re stage of developm ent. W e have no choice — either we have to com prehend the perspec­ tives to th a t ex ten t and direct tra in in g for life accordingly,101 or we assume im plicitly th a t life in the fu tu re w ill be m uch the same as it is today, o r perhaps th a t changes in hum an abilities w ill play n o substan tia l p a rt in fu tu re civilisation processes — in o ther words, we project the presen t aspect of the w orld and its industria lisa tion processes in to fu tu re decades, abstracting from the nascent scientific and technological revolu tion and the social transform ations of o u r day. A nd to the ex ten t th a t this p ic tu re is divorced from reality , we shall be confining society w ith in its present dim ensions and m aking education a drag on the fu tu re progress of civilisation.