Teaching for uncertain futures - Neville Freeman Agency

21four scenario worldsScenario 2Lookingback from 2030a farewellto armsAnna Berich lives in Perth with her husbandand three kids.My youngest daughter, Georgia, recentlyasked me to compare growing up around Perth thirtyyears ago to now. The question was part of a schoolproject and I must admit that it rather floored mebecause you rarely get the chance to sit back and thinkabout these things.I guess the main difference was that back then societywas more focused on the individual. The word‘community’ conjured up images of pensioners sittingin broken-down church halls drinking tea and playingbingo. These days community drives almosteverything and schools are right at the heart of it.Thirty years ago, schools weren’t open at night and youcould hardly buy anything from the parent-teacherassociation shop. These days, I pick up most of my fairtrade local fruit and vegetables from the school shopwhen I drop Anna off in the mornings and we use theschool hall for everything from local Water ActionGroup meetings to technology boot camps for thegrandparents.I suppose the really big difference though is the factthat then Western Australia was like the Wild West– a bit of a boy town perched between the desert andthe sea. Men ran most of the resource companies andfarms and women were few and far between in bothbusiness and politics. These days we are more or lessin line with the global shift towards female values andthings like empathy, intuition and emotionalintelligence are in great demand locally andinternationally. There are more women in positionsof power worldwide, which has softened things a bit,especially in areas like defence and foreign affairs.Conversely, there are more men in education,especially at the junior level, which gives the boysgreat role models.