Chapter 1 - The Future

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The Future	83

16. The triumph of the individual

   Around the world we're also seeing a revival of individual power and responsibility as more and more people take responsibility for creating their own future.
   For around 200 years, national governments and then industrial giants have dominated almost every aspect of society.
  Now the individual consumer is king - and queen - with the right and ability to choose from the best products and services around the world. This will also involve each one of us in taking the responsibility for choosing our own education - and in selecting the very best educational systems from around the world: a change with revolutionary potential.
  We believe that personal revolution should take place from very early in life. As Don Tapscott summarizes it in Growing Up Digital: "I have become convinced that the most revolutionary force for change is the students themselves. Give children the tools they need and they will be the single most important source of guidance on how to make the schools relevant and effective."

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  Obviously, these are not the only dominant changes. We have not mentioned the spiritual revival taking place in many parts of the world, nor the regrowth of fundamentalism in many religions. The need to protect the environment is another vital trend, and has been covered in dozens of other books. So has the new age of biochemistry.
  But the 16 key points in this chapter represent major trends which we believe present an unchallenged case for a corresponding revolution in learning. Grasping all the opportunities will change not only the face of government and industry, but the very nature of the world we live in, and the very nature of the educational and learning systems that will groom us for the future.
  A continuing theme in this book is that we cannot achieve the educational breakthroughs we need unless we make an increasing investment in new methods of education and learning.
  No one would think of lighting a fire today by rubbing two sticks together. Yet much of what passes for education is based on equally outdated concepts.

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