TCUSD’s Facilities Needs Assessment and Improvement Program, an initiative to renovate every school in the district with modern classrooms, technology such as Eno boards and yes, athletic facilities (a new track!), has me thinking about the future of student life in TC. What will be students’ “first world problems” in the future?
In the next decade, libraries will adapt to the digital age and textbooks will be stored on tablet computers. Students will carry fewer binders and textbooks, reducing the amount of stress on their shoulders.
Classroom life will be centered on the interactive whiteboards, and teachers will run interactive programs to make conceptual topics like the sciences easier to visualize. Most or all homework will be stored on a cloud network. First world problem number one: Ms. Q just gave a paper study guide. PAPER. STUDY. GUIDE. #oldfashioned #wasting #imgoingtoloseit.
The SAT will gradually lose its importance in college applications as more students prep for the exam and push the colleges to prioritize grades, citizenship and teacher recommendations over test scores. Already, fewer colleges are requiring the SAT for admission.
Academic competition will also decline because of the high school’s decision to no longer name valedictorians and salutatorians to discourage weighted-GPA boosting. With hope, these changes will create a new generation of students who enroll in classes based on interest rather than for Honors and AP credit. First world problem number two: Oh no! No one is taking Honors Orchestra!
Elementary education will become more intensive under the new Common Core standards, with emphasis on mastery of fewer, but more rigorous standards. Cursive writing under the new standards will take a backseat to keyboard typing, and perhaps cursive will vanish all together, although one could argue it already has. First world problem number three: How do you sign a syllabus? Where’s the “I agree to the Terms and Conditions” box?
By the end of the century, advances in neuroscience will give “learning” a new definition. Students will be home-schooled or self-educated for most of their early lives. Downloading information into one’s brain may become a possibility by then. Already, scientists at MIT have been able to implant memories into mice, and studies by Boston University and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto indicate learning can be induced.
School may become obsolete 120 years into TCHS’s history. First world problem number four: My grandfather only has a college level education #keepupgramps.