Torch - Spring/Summer 2020

Feature Story

Garth Nichols, Vice Principal of Strategic Innovation and Design, works with a student on her self-directed passion project for a tech conference for Toronto teens.

communication skills and technology. 3 And, as global futurist Rohit Talwar has famously predicted, over the course of their lifetime, a child today might hold 40 different jobs that fall under 10 different careers 4 —a dramatic departure from the linear, long-term employment patterns that have been the norm for generations (between 1983 and 2010, 65 per cent of Canadians held their jobs for 12 or more years, and nearly one in five for 25 or more years, according to Statistics Canada 5 ).

“The future is getting more complex and less predictable,” says Garth Nichols, Vice Principal, Strategic Innovation and Design at Havergal. “It used to be that when we asked the question ‘What will the future look like in five years?’ we might have been able to map backward and look for changes in the last few years and then imagine them forward. But we are not wired to see exponential changes: linear change, yes, but the type of change we are seeing now—what it looks like to transfer consciousness

to a robot, what happens when a fully autonomous vehicle pulls up as your next Uber. “These are things we can’t really grapple with yet,” Nichols says. “But while we tend to fear that because it’s so unknown and complex, our role as educators is to prepare students with mindsets and skills in order to understand and engage with that future.”

3 Harnish, T., Lister, K., “WORKshift Canada: The Bottom Line on Telework.” April 2011. Accessed on March 3, 2020, via calgaryeconomic development.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Telework_Canada_Final.pdf. 4 Slawson, Nicola. “Children today could work until they are 100, predicts futurologist.” The Guardian . October 7, 2015. Accessed on March 3, 2020, via theguardian.com/science/2015/oct/07/children-today-could-work-until-they-are-100-predicts-futurologist. 5 Statistics Canada, Longitudinal Worker File. “Longest observed employment duration over the 1983-to-2010 period.” Last modified on November 27, 2015. Accessed on March 3, 2020, via https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11f0019m/2013352/t002-eng.htm.

20  HAVERGAL COLLEGE