What the future brings? Ask kindergarten teacher!

There is a lot of talk, especially among Job Seekers – What will future bring? Who to ask? Who really knows? Some thought of physicist or mathematicians. Others say: ICT experts. Reasoning is: they can calculate the variables. They can predict the trends.

Other direction goes to psychologists, psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Kind of make sense with depression hitting #2 ranking cause of disability around the world. Somebody to pick our brains and tell us where to go, what knowledge and skills to get and what to do – sounds about right. Or is it?

I mean, how much we can trust people in labs, crunching imaginary numbers or creating new ways of socialization and social networks that in their nature de-socialize the society?! So, in my book you can count out mathematicians, physicist and ICT geniuses. They are all very useful. They just cannot tell us – really tell us – what the future brings, with any degree of certainty.

Then, how about brain pickers as fortune tellers? Psychologists, psychiatrist and psychotherapists are people I am good with. They treat me a lot. Medication. Talking. Asking endless whys. And I get that, they do help me in some part of my life a lot. It’s just, with all the neuroplasticity of the brain all they really go after is the past. Brain shaping in their way is changing how we think of past to do differently in the present. And yes, if done right that brings better future, but it surely does not tell us what the future brings!

So, I will go radical over here. I’ll quote Clifford Stoll in his TED talk. “If you want to really know what the future brings – ask kindergarten teachers”. Or better yet – ask good ones. So I asked. And this is empiric, no studies conducted.

It brakes like this. Parents of today have way too high expectations of everybody around their children. In high rates we have new phenomena: Child idolatry. They are becoming little gods for many parents. On the other end of spectrum are parents who neglect their children, and they do so systemically. So many little ones these days have soft gaze towards horizon. But it is kind of empty gaze – seeking for attention of adults. Some in search of attention are cuddly with their kindergarten teacher, or they fight with them all the time. But in the end, their kindergarten teachers are closest friends to those little ones, and that’s such a shame because their parents aren’t. In general, attention span is shorter and shorter. ‘I want it all and I want it now’ is becoming new mantra of lots of generation Z, or whichever letter comes next. Ambition clashers and fighters are much more common than before. And of course, there is silent minority these days of children with proper upbringing, love, nurture and care. That, to me, is the saddest part.

So what the future brings? It’s all about people! And that will be these little ones of today.

More aggressive deadlines, more competitive targets and more dehumanized working environments. Healthy balanced life-work will become distant dream. Bosses will more and more become oppressors, and true leaders will be dying kind. But where these leaders will exist and survive, their companies will stick out as the ones to work for, as exception that confirms the rule. Of course, it is all based on today’s consumerist mantra: “I want more!” And problem with wanting more is – you never get it. Once you have more – you still want more!

l2i