Dan Pink's Brave New World

The opening session of the 2007 AASL Conference in Reno was as lively and sparkling as the city itself. News about our efforts nationally were cheered as the new Standards fro the 21st-Century Learner were unveiled. What a wonderful lead-in to our speaker, the always controversial and innovative Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind. Focusing on the “six abilities that organizations and individuals must master” in order to succeed in our automated society, we were made aware of the power of effective teaching, and the role that school librarians have in the future of our children. Pink discussed the ways in which right-brained thinking has affected our economy, and emphasized the paradigm shift that hiring executives now consider when seeking an effective workforce; more design and less engineering. In other words, the linear, logical, and right-brained skills that were so necessary in twentieth century manufacturing and technology worlds have now, for the most part, been automated. The new workforce is creative, artistic, empathetic and, well, left-brained.

Pink claims that the causes for this shift are three-fold: abundance, Asia, and automation, and his right-brained logic is uncanny. Let's face it, we live in a country now where most citizens have so many material items that we need storage units to hold them (we should all go into the storage business!). Our parents and grandparents did not have to rely on the amount of “stuff” and technology to be happy and productive. So we need to consider the “stuff” when we teach because it is now part of our culture.

Asia plays a very important part in our future, as we all know, simply because the growing population in India and other Asian nations is becoming English-literate, technologically savvy, and willing to work for less money. The numbers are staggering, and I suggest that you read Pink's previous book, Free Agent Nation.
As for automation, I sit here using my 3 lb. laptop at 5:45 a.m., looking at the breathtaking sunrise over Reno (Ansel Adams moon as well) and wonder what my mother would have been doing right now. If she wanted to share her thoughts with me, she would have reached over to the nightstand, pulled out some hotel stationery, and, with pen in hand and exquisite handwriting, write a letter to mail at the post office. I have to ask myself the question that Pink repeated in his speech: are we preparing our students for their future or our past?

He doesn't claim to have all the answers, but the right questions for school librarians to be asking when we prepare our students to be successful lifelong learners and workers.