I gave a TEDx talk last year about the jobs our children will have in the future …
… and it is a theme I keep returning to because I have twin boys who are ten years old now.
The school they go to are now looking for a new Board member, so I wrote a speech and thought it was worth sharing here. Happy to hear your thoughts. Here it is:
Dear parents,
My name is Chris Skinner, and I have put my name in the frame for the open Board position at this school. Why? Because I have two boys in this school, and they have changed my view of the world. They love this school, as do I. Why do they love this school? Because it is an open school. It is an inclusive school. It is a school designed to give children the best environment to learn, and that’s very important to me. More than this, I believe the school does a great job in nurturing and creating children who flourish in a multicultural environment.
As you may already know, I spend a lot of time working with children in several areas from creating the Portrait Foundation with worldwide acclaimed Polish artist Basia Hamilton.
And as a content creator and author writing five books for children promoting the themes of teamwork, diversity and friendship, around Captain Cake and the Candy Crew.
For those who don’t know me in general, I spend all of my time thinking about tomorrow, the future and where we are going, and the biggest question in my head is: what will our children do in the future?
For me, the most important thing for my children is emotional intelligence.
When I was growing up, we had strict rules and disciplines. In my household we don’t. We just have love and support, and that is my vision of the future of education: affirming, safe and welcoming.
Of course, there are some things we have to control – screen time being the main one – but the major focus must be upon emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is far more strategically important in the future than general intelligence, which can now be artificial.
When I was growing up, the focus for my teachers were the 3 R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic. My education was all about learning numbers, dates, history, geography, science and such. STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – is the focus.
Now, I’m not throwing shade at these subjects, but the future educational system will pivot towards emotional intelligence. What is emotional intelligence? Psychology Today defines it as: “the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.”
Emotional intelligence has skills of emotional awareness:
- the ability to identify and name one’s own emotions;
- the ability to harness those emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and
- the ability to manage emotions, which includes both regulating one’s own emotions when necessary and helping others to do the same.
I define it as the ability to relate.
This is the criticality of our future.
Relationships, emotions, humanity are the future.
The problem with that statement is that humanity has always focused on innovation and progress. We want the next generation of everything. We want to reach the Moon and Mars. We want to achieve everything we can. We want to create.
That is our emotion.
What this really means are the things my children do in twenty years from now are very different to the things I did. They should excel in teamwork, relationships, psychology, philosophy, sports and all things to do with the brain and the body. In the meantime, much of STEM will be managed by machines. All of our history, numbers, geography and such, will be in the machines. We can just access them with a search word. So, why would we learn them?
We should learn them as all of these facts and numbers are great input to all things to do with our creativity, which is our emotion. Our emotion is to create and relate, and this is a real pivot in education and where we are heading, in that we will use STEM in the future to assist our understanding of each other and our relationships with each other. We won’t be using it to educate – the machines will do that – we will use it to create, because that’s what we do.
So, don’t get me wrong, STEM and the 3 R’s are still critical in our base foundations, but I want my children to be far more emotionally intelligent, as all the rest can be done artificially.
This is the heart of education.
I totally think children still need to learn the basics of the 3R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic – but emotional intelligence is always going to beat artificial intelligence.
Machines can read, write and do math, but they cannot be humans. Machines can do STEM, but without direction, they will go nowhere. We have to direct them. We can programme them to appear human, but they are not. We are. We have emotional intelligence and relationships. That's what being human is all about.
This is the core of my vision: how to build children who can relate.
So, what will I bring to the school?
A vision.
My vision is all about the future focused upon technologies like AI and quantum computing. That’s my speciality as I have worked in these areas all of my life. More importantly, it is my vision of how humans and technology interact, intersect and integrate.
In case you don’t know me well, I have travelled the world for forty years and really understand cultures and values. I’ve visited over 100 countries, written 20 business books about the future.
One of my major achievements has been acting as an advisor to the White House, as well as to the United Nations where I gave a major speech in New York some years ago. I have also advised the World Bank and World Economic Forum, with a memorable visit to Davos.
Alongside this, I have over 225,000 followers worldwide including many in the America, Asia and Africa, as well as Europe and Poland of course. My network is second to none. You can find out more about me here if you want:
I am also a renowned speaker on these topics, which is why I’ve presented three TED talks, including this one last year on the jobs our children will do:
That is my passion. The future. What jobs will our children be doing in twenty years? Do you know ……………………………………………… I know.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...