Education for the 21st Century

In the September 1983 issue of Educational Leadership, education professor Arthur J. Lewis looks ahead to the 21st century and considers what it means for education. His predictions on technology, the information age, and emerging demographic trends are surprisingly prescient and offer an early perspective on globalization and the digital age.

Read the article: Education for the 21st Century (PDF)

From his vantage point more than two decades ago, Lewis sees a future where computers are ubiquitous, information is shared with incredible speed, and the U.S. population is on the decline. He notes that although anticipating the exact problems of the next century is not possible, predicting their essence is: "They will surely be global  . . . and require the integration of knowledge from different fields for their solutions."

To meet these challenges, Lewis recommends that teachers foster their students' ability to comprehend and analyze the massive amounts of information they will receive. He also suggests that educators encourage students to become lifelong learners. Lewis insists, "To cope with emerging global problems, people will need to continue learning throughout their lives."

Now that our feet are officially wet in the 21st century, how are Lewis's decades-old declarations playing out in your school?

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at www.ascd.org.