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If we could take a look into the future, we could make a fair assessment of our schools and whether or not they're preparing our children for the future. We do, in fact, have a small open window to peer through that will tell us of some approaching events.

The traditional way of preparing our children for their future could be short sighted. If you have a school age child now, they are probably being prepared for a traditional future. Will that be good enough for your children?

Today's society places emphasis on what an education can do for the student. If we take a look at the future, with what we now know, we might change our view.

Who's minding the store?

What does the future look like? In terms of the youth population, it doesn't look good for the U.S. and a few other progressive countries. School age children in the U.S., under the age of 18, make up about one fourth of the national population.

"Nationally, there were 217.8 million people age 18 and over; 35.9 million people age 65 and over; and 53.3 million children ages 5 to 17 as of July 1, 2003, according to estimates just released by the U.S Census Bureau." Posted in www.about.com

Of the present workforce, 77 million boomers will retire over the next twenty years, and approximately 50 million will join the workforce in that time.

These figures don't take the disabled community into account; although, many disabled people work at least part-time and some full-time. Nationally, the disabled population numbered 49 million in the year 2000.

If the census figures are accurate, it translates to our youth carrying a mountainous burden for running our country and our economy.

Education

No hard answers are forthcoming, but awareness is key to preparing our children for the future. More job demands mean more opportunities and more responsibility.

Education has a responsibility to realign its views with realistic expectations for the future of our children and their children. Emphasis on core classes in the sciences and languages are called for to get the next generation ready to take on greater roles.

Parental involvement is needed in the school systems to assure academic standards are upheld. Parental involvement with children is a key aspect to learning to meet the challenges of the future. If we don't have time for these things, maybe we don't care enough about what happens next.

Students will need to consider educational goals by the time they reach middle school to be ready to take advantage of the expanded opportunities.

If we fail to see the impact of the worker population decline in the 21st century, we're failing our children and their future.

Sources:

http://usgovinf o.about.com/cs/censusstatistic /a/latestpopcounts.htm

http://w ww.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2 kbr-17.pdf

Learn more about this author, Mona Gallagher.
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