Ecology of Education

Beyond “preparing our kids for 21st-century jobs”

It is long past time to do away with sloganeering about “preparing our kids for 21st-century jobs.”

This cliché, and others like it, contributes to a narrative that cheapens the work of educators and shrinks the province of education to something that is done purely “in preparation” for something more “real,” more substantial or meaningful – i.e., a job. But it is a colossal mistake to think and speak about K-16 education as though it were nothing more than extended job-training.