ARE SCHOOLS THINKING AHEAD? 

Most schools offer courses in history. So there are history courses and history teachers. The past provides a good foundation on which to build. But that's only the foundation. Isn't it time, after all these years of schooling, to get on building the house?

Schools teach us the known. But all that resides in a data bank. Today's marketplace offers premiums to those who search out the unknown, which once located, must be researched in depth, tested and prepared for the milleau where it will be used. This process requires a knowledge navigator. Schools aren't producing any.

This column was triggered by the fat 48-page folder of courses published by the Vancouver School Board on their continuing education program. It's great. More than 1,000 courses, varying from crafts and cosmetic surgery to sewing bras into slips and learning Tagalog, the language of The Philippines. These courses are offered during the day, in the evening and even full time on weekends. They are user-friendly. Hours are not rigid and restrictive. These courses make learning easy. Student fees seem ridiculously low. Seniors can buy a card that covers nine courses a year for $20, although it costs extra for such supplies as food in cooking classes, art materials, and textbooks. Younger students pay between free and $180.

But is anyone teaching about tomorrow?

In an age where change is constant, where the most secure job can be wafted out of existence by the breeze of the next technological advance, no one is teaching how to adapt to rapid change. With no earthling capable of ever welding better than a robot, many schools still teach welding. With the electronic camera about to devastate both amateur and professional photographers, they still teach film photography. With ceramic materials replacing metal cutlery, they teach metallurgy and sword making. With new knowledge and the even more threatening to-the-know-nots technological advances, now moving at the speed of light, no one is trying to develop the people who can survive and thrive, and light the path in the tomorrow's to come.

Does your school have a course in "futurism"? Does any teacher, school board member or politician understand the possibilities and implications? Ask around. You will be shocked. Phone your local school board or the office of your teachers union (In B.C. that's the B.C. Teachers Federation at 731-8121).

If schools, politicians and governments are watching the rear view mirror instead of looking through the front windshield of life, is it any wonder we don't know where we are going? Yet, governments that quickly set up a DEW (Distant Early Warning Line) for a military war are unable to even think about the same for an economic battle, which could be even more destructive. I recent letter from a gentleman in Calgary, whom over the years I got to know well, mentions there was already ample evidence about what was about to happen. Yet no politician knew. No school gave instruction. No government drew attention (or wanted to stop the tax revenue flow). Dumb. This gentleman listened, watched and then made his decision. In the culture of the day, especially for him, it wasn't easy. Governments have trouble making hard decisions. They certainly haven't trained for it in the past.

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