Preparing Our Children for the Age of AI: 4 Key Skills to Develop
Let’s face it; we were raised on the notion that as long as you chose a lucrative study area, put in the hours, and aced your exams, you would have a decent job that would turn into a lifelong career.
Today, the same can’t be said for our children. Sure, the main priority today also is to provide them with the tools and skills to succeed as they enter the workforce.
However, the education that our children require is not necessarily the same as the one we received growing up.
To prepare them for the age of AI, a future that will involve cutting-edge technologies, we must first understand how the current education system works and how it’s impeding our kids’ professional and personal development.
Accordingly, we must take steps to equip them with the skills needed to succeed in this hyper-technological age.
In this blog, we provide you insights into the current educational systems, the opportunities that are squandered, and how an international school in Ranchi, like Taurian World School, helps fill this educational gap.
Why the Current Education System Can’t Keep Up With the Age of AI
The modern day educational system no longer works. It follows the “factory model” of education, which is outdated, unfitting, and essentially creates identically-programmed specimens out of students rather than individual thinkers and creators. The theories are very rigid and the skills, very stiff.
This made sense during the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd industrial revolution when the purpose was to train civil servants in limited and specific skillsets.
But it’s grossly inadequate for children being brought up amidst the 4th industrial revolution. It’s going to be a ‘foundational revolution’ that will redefine the ways technology exists in our world and how we interact with it.
The growth has been more or less linear in the last two centuries, and education has also grown accordingly.
However, in the age of AI, many of these technologies will converge. It’s going to be a time of exponential growth.
How will the Age of AI Affect the Future of Work?
Given the pace of technological advancement, the majority of jobs that the current education system prepares our children for will become irrelevant by the time they enter the workforce.
There’s a chance that some jobs might not even exist, being made obsolete by technology or simply non-lucrative.
The stability and job security that we once enjoyed are also set to become an artefact of our generation. Today’s generation is always searching for flexibility, growth, and learning opportunities, leading them to switch jobs frequently.
The snowball only rolls faster and becomes bigger from here on.
With their ability to pivot to new technologies faster amidst a fast-evolving landscape, millennials, Gen Zs, and the generations after will have quite a different professional life in the age of AI from the one we experienced.
How Do We Preprate Our Children for the Age of AI
As one of the best international schools in Ranchi, we prioritise staying up-to-date with the industry and market and formulating a curriculum that will provide your child with the most valuable skills for the future.
Based on our understanding, we’ve identified four areas we must encourage and develop in our kids to help them thrive in the age of AI. We call it the 4C approach:
1. Creativity
As fast and efficient as AI is, it’s no match for human creativity.
At Taurian, we prioritise incorporating the values of creativity at all levels and disciplines into our curriculum.
From regular classroom sessions turned into debates to outdoor learning, visual arts, and performing arts, we provide students with scenarios, experiences, and circumstances that encourage them to tap into their creative thoughts.
In a future where most mindless tasks will be taken over by machines, creativity will be the defining factor between a high-paying job and a non-lucrative one.
Also, it prepares your child for the gig and freelancer economy that’s slowly finding its foothold in India.
2. Coding
In the age of AI, the ability to interact with computers and machines constructively is an important skill.
It will help your child better understand the human-technology relationship. And it doesn’t necessarily mean providing your child with more screen time.
We at Taurian provide coding instruction in a very structured way to help students become noble with handling technology. Our location and landscape also encourage a scroll-free life, allowing your child to have a healthier relationship with technology.
3. Communication
The importance of knowing how to effectively and eloquently communicate cannot be overstated.
However, the environment that currently surrounds our kids has sapped them of any real human
interaction.
Social media, mobile phones, emails and apps have made it easier for them to avoid eye contact and escape uncomfortable yet important situations.
Active listening, reading verbal cues, and problem-solving are all things that make human interaction meaningful, and they are all things AI can’t do.
So, yes, communication will be an important part of skillsets in employees of the future.
Taurian’s residential, academic, artistic, and athletic life is designed in a way that encourages interaction and communication between students, teachers, and staff, exposing them to important life scenarios that make communication come naturally to them.
Our campus life, therefore, is one of the reasons why we’re deemed the best international school in Ranchi.
4. Confidence
In the age of AI that is new, unknown, and uncertain to all of us, children must feel that they have both hands on the wheels. They must feel in charge of their destiny.
That is confidence. That is the ability to make decisions without fear of making mistakes.
Our projects, assignments, and all form of assessments, both individual and collective, actively encourages students to take risks, exercise their judgement and take decisions that affect not only their lives but others’ as well.
It’s a great way to provide them with worldly experience and knowledge that victories come after many defeats.
In Summary
No one is certain how the world will look like in the Age of AI. But one thing is clear, our current educational system is not doing enough to prepare our children for a technology-driven future.
But we at Taurian certainly are. By focusing less on grades and more on cognitive, emotional, and technical development, our school makes our students inherently prepared for a future entwined with technology while not letting them forget their roots.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can make your child ready for the future.