Are We Prepared for a 60-Year Curriculum?
Newsflash: Our linear progression of learning through a single, lifetime career died last century. What is more, your job will likely evaporate this decade. And you’re going to live longer. These two facts essentially mean you’ll need to swerve into new careers at unpredictable points throughout your life.
Anxiety producing, yes? Unless, of course, you choose to see anxiety as just excitement deprived of breath, in which case, take a deep breath and read on.
This interesting article and the associated book, The 60-Year Curriculum: New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy, share a lot in common with MEA’s white paper, The Emergence of Long Life Learning. The "60-Year Curriculum" refers to a new perspective oriented toward continuing education and centered on six decades of employment, requiring a lifetime of learning in the context of repeated occupational change and transition. The interesting thing about this article and book is they suggest that unlearning is as important as learning because it opens up new capacity. In other words, for many of us, our hard drive is overloaded and obsolescent.
You might say it’s time to defrag the mind and allow space for curiosity and new discoveries that will enrich our lives in ways we could have never imagined. The 60-year curriculum is a wonderful concept to pass on to our kids and grandchildren. Better yet, pass it on to yourself.
