< PreviousFoundation subjects where core subjects have a more structured format, and where foundation subjects are more fluid and dynamic, for example, following the principles of connected learning discussed previously. CORE SUBJECT 1 COMMUNICATION All of today’s education systems prioritise their own sovereign languages, but while they prioritise literacy, writing and the spoken language they often stop short of teaching students about the more nuanced forms of communication, such as non-verbal communication, a form of communication which, if studies are to believed, is one of our most dominant forms of communication. As a result I would argue that rather than simply teaching Arabic, Chinese, English, or Spanish, for example, teachers should help students master communication in all its forms, with both humans and machines - the latter being a phenomenon that will be increasingly prevalent in the years and decades to come. CORE SUBJECT 2 MATHS The relevance of maths post education is often questioned, with trigonometry, for example, often being singled out as a topic that has little or no relevance in people’s everyday lives. But today, while we continue to question the relevance of individual topics, maths is just as crucial as ever, if not more so, especially when you realise that it helps students grapple with optimisation and statistical problems, and that maths is the secret sauce that helps fuel everything from artificial intelligence and computer science, to cyber security, encryption, and even quantum mechanics - all of which are, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, in high demand. CORE SUBJECT 3 SCIENCE Today the world would be a very different place if it wasn’t for the multitude of scientific breakthroughs we’ve witnessed down through the millennia, from the discovery of Penicillin to the invention of the combustion engine, and many others. As we move into the future science will continue to play a greater, not lesser role in society, but as we move from the molecular to the atomic, the electronic to the biological, and from electrons to Notes: 220311institute.comphotons and quanta, all fields which will help revolutionise every part of our society, from aerospace and energy, to healthcare, retail and transportation, needless to say what we teach will have change at an increasingly frenetic rate. FOUNDATION 1 CODING Many people have latched onto coding, along with other so called “Digital skills,” as being one of the must have subjects taught in today’s modern classrooms, but in my opinion we run the danger of hanging too much hope one this single subject, in the way we’re teaching it today at least. While it’s true that coding is an in demand skill today, and will be for the foreseeable future, it’s also one that is already being automated by machines from a variety of multi-national companies ranging from Google to Microsoft and beyond. As a consequence we need to be very careful we don’t accidentally railroad today’s students into professions that could dead end in 20 to 30 years, when they’ll still only be a third of the way through their working lives. That said though coding is evolving and as a subject it still has a huge amount of runway left, the upshot of which is the fact that today we should be teaching students about the principles of biological, chemical, DNA, liquid, molecular, neuromorphic and quantum computing platforms, as well as how to code life itself, a field known as Synthetic Biology. Tomorrow’s computing platforms will be capable of packing all of today’s computing power into a package the size of nothing more than a fingernail, 1’s and 0’s will be replaced, or at least augmented by DNA,Qubits and polymer chains, and much more. Meanwhile, AI’s will be 3D printed, not just coded, and built from biological units and DNA, and all of that, which is still just the tip of the iceberg, is before we explore the new coding languages, simulation engines, and tools, that will emerge that will let us, and the machines, build and code new products millions of times faster than we do today. FOUNDATION 2 DESIGN THINKING Another important subject in today’s world, and one that is arguably under prioritised, design thinking draws on a Notes: 221311institute.comvariety of soft skills, such as empathy, and combines the best of traditional creative arts with the latest in cutting edge design, whether it’s process or product design, or more broadly systems design, all of which will be increasingly relevant in the future, whether it’s being applied to the creation and development of new computer programs, 3D printed skyscrapers, or the development of new artificial organisms. FOUNDATION 3 ENGINEERING Engineering is where scientific breakthroughs meet the road and are embedded into new products. For example yesterday’s electromagnetic radiation discoveries were leveraged to engineer yesterday’s televisions, just as today’s quantum dot discoveries will be used to make tomorrow’s televisions, as well as tomorrow’s tricorder devices. Engineering provides students with opportunities to build, explore and test how different ideas and concepts work, or don’t, while at the same time helping them to improve their ability to reason and think things through in novel ways. FOUNDATION 4 ENTREPRENEURSHIP Entrepreneurship encapsulates a wide variety of skills, many of which I’ve discussed previously. At its core entrepreneurship is about identifying a problem, an opportunity, developing a vision and then working creatively and pro-actively with others to turn that vision into a reality, and better yet, it’s inter-disciplinary, drawing in one way or another on everything I’ve discussed in this Codex, from creative thinking and experimentation to problem solving and beyond. In the future we will see the rise of more fully autonomous organisations than many expect, and in fact we’re already seeing the first ones appear, so it’s absolutely critical that students are able to think on their feet, see the bigger picture and have the skills they need to create and execute their visions. Similarly, as the cost of building, operating and scaling businesses of all shapes and sizes in all industries, digital and physical, continues to plummet, dropping by more than a thousand fold in the last few years alone, we have an opportunity today like never before to create a new generation of visionary thinkers who can change the world. But only if we give them the tools and the Notes: 222311institute.comskills they need. FOUNDATION 5 HEALTH AND SPORTS Healthy bodies and healthy minds will continue to play a vital role in helping people prosper and live well, but again today health and sports are all to often separated out into specific subjects, but as we continue to see the emergence of the Quantified Self, in both healthcare and in sports, I believe it makes sense to collapse the two together, and, as mentioned previously, eliminate the boundaries between silos. Increasingly, thanks to the rise of new technologies, students will be able to see the impact that specific health and wellness programs have on their bodies and performance in real time, providing them with new insights and information that they can use to improve their health and performance. FOUNDATION 6 HUMANITIES Every student should be provided with a grounding in citizenship, ethics, and social studies that incorporate elements of history, geography and political science which help them learn about the dynamics and nuances of human society. As we head into the future though students will inevitably find themselves having to work within the framework of a decentralised global workforce that is comprised of both humans and virtual entities, and unless we help prepare them for this new world today they could find themselves quickly outpaced and lost. Consequently I would strongly suggest that we evolve social studies to include teachings about synthetic intelligence and synthetic societies, abstract fields that today, admittedly are still emerging and difficult to get our heads around. FOUNDATION 7 SAFETY AND SECURITY One of the more unfortunate aspects of today’s and tomorrow’s world is the fact that there are people who do great good, but also people who do great evil, and this isn’t going to be going away in the future. If anything it will get worse which is why we need educated and informed students who can be part of the solution and not the problem. As increasingly powerful emerging technologies, such as Artificial Notes: 223311institute.comNotes: Intelligence and Genetic Engineering, to name but two, become cheaper and increasingly democratised, as well as increasingly easy to leverage and use, by both humans and machines, safety and security are going to be a continued opportunity for school leavers, both in the short and long term - even though the technologies and tools will change. FOUNDATION 8 TECHNOLOGY EXPOSURE The pace of global change in the last decade has been faster than at any other point in human history, and everyone agrees that the pace of change will continue to accelerate throughout the next decade, and as I demonstrated on my Starburst in an earlier chapter, technology is at the epicentre of it all. In a world filled with increasingly capable and powerful emerging technologies understanding what they are and what they can help us build and achieve is going to be crucial to our students futures. There is a caveat though. While I believe it is important to expose students to emerging technologies it’s arguably more important to help them, to use a phrase, “skate to the puck,” in other words help them see where they’re going and understand their future potential, a skill, that if mastered, will help give students the edge when they enter the workforce. 224311institute.comNotes: 225311institute.comRUNNING YOUR FIRST EFC COURSEI T IS one thing to understand why we need to change what we teach our children and have the idea how to do it but it’s an entirely different thing to actually do it and put it into action, and given the wide gap between the concepts and topics covered in the Exponential Futures Curriculum (EFC) and our Industrial Age formal education curricula it’s natural to be slightly apprehensive when thinking about running your own EFC courses. This is why as we and our partners moved from the Idea Stage to the Pilot Stage we documented everything about the first EFC trial runs - the highs and the lows, the good and the bad - so we could modify the things that didn’t work in mid flight, find areas for improvement, and ensure that when it comes to running your own EFC courses you’d have everything you need to succeed first time every time. GETTING TO “GO” As with anything that you’re thinking of doing firstly you have to have a reason for doing it. In this case I’m hoping I’ve made this abundantly clear, specifically to provide students with the modern day and futures knowledge and skills they need to survive and thrive in both today’s 227311institute.com world and in the future that aren’t taught as part of today’s curriculum. Secondly, you need the full support of your school’s leadership team, and thirdly you need a plan, access to resources, and time. It really is this simple. Or it’s supposed to be. But as we all know there are always different ways for different things to get in our way which is why I have created this codex and other content for you to explore and share with the result being that, arguably, the only thing you have to do is convince your school’s leadership team to run a trial and I and our partners can even help with that. Which then leaves us with one question: What’s stopping you?THE WORLD’S FIRST EFC TRIAL RUNA S MENTIONED previously when we ran the first Exponential Futures Curriculum (EFC) courses, the Future of Food and the Exponential Entrepreneurship courses, we documented everything we observed. On the one hand this allowed us to modify the courses in mid flight and improve them, but on the other we believe the observations provide valuable insights into the behaviours of students and teachers, as well as the logistics of running the courses, that could be invaluable for those of you thinking about running your own courses but who are intrigued about the unknowns associated with running what is to all intents and purposes a first of a kind curriculum. BACK STORY For us and the school involved getting to the point where we had a viable curriculum to run and then being able to run it took just under three years, partly because the global COVID-19 pandemic delayed its implementation for two years or so. About the School While there are many schools who could have run the first courses the decision was made to run them at Sherfield School in Hampshire in the UK, a private Primary and Secondary school with over 450 students ranging in age from 3 to 18 that’s part of the Bellevue Group and global GEMS Group, and which has a long standing tradition of educational excellence and innovation, with our sponsor being none other than the Headmaster, Nick B., himself. I must stress though that while our objective is to democratise access to futures education for everyone - irrespective of their ability, background, and circumstances, or school - that the decision to run the pilot at a private school was in part guided by the difficulty that UK public schools have adopting things outside of the traditional core curriculum - the very thing people everywhere agree needs updating. Ultimately, the rather harsh fact of the matter is that when it comes to trying to do new things in new ways private schools have a lot more flexibility than their public school counterparts so, to be clear, in this case it was never a question of money or resources, simply a matter of flexibility and that’s something that governments everywhere should take heed of, and it’s a challenge I’ll be tackling another day. 229311institute.comNext >