EDC 668--Blog 7 Week 6/16

From where does personal and local change derive? How can we use change to promote deeper learning as individuals and in our local settings?


Daniel Yankelovich's article Ferment and Change: Higher Education in 2015 focuses on 5 trends higher education should consider in the next ten years. These trends help us to see how personal and local change derives.

The first trend Yankelovich writes of is: Changing life cycles as our nation's population ages. "The demographic facts are familiar, but quite dramatic: While life expectancy in the United States in 1900 was a mere 47 years, people in the 21st century are expected to live to be almost 90  a whopping extra 40 years of life. Hardly any facet of our existence will be unaffected by that sweeping change. "

With this fact in mind, it is important to note the job-mentality of today's youth.
"it is difficult for young people to make sound career-life choices without testing them in the "real world" of practical experience. Our culture provides ample opportunities to test choices -- what to buy, where to live, and even sexual-mating choices. But the long-established practice of sequencing education first and work later forces young people to make fateful life choices before they are equipped to do so, or worse, to postpone making them until it is too late."

Today's youth are our future and we need to understand their needs to help make personal and local change happen.

Personal change comes from within. According to http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/perschg.html
"Personal change happens through a journey of discovery. You need to find out more about yourself; how you do things, how you have been limiting your options, how you have created your current situation for yourself. Along the way you will find out a lot more about life and about how you can be in charge of your own. And you will find that you already have a lot of positive resources available to you."

Once a person acknowledges their need for change and has embarked on the journey of discovery, they can impact local change. Local change can be made through collaboration amongst many people. It is very difficult to initiate local change with one person.

Change can be made as a result of reflection and deeper understanding of oneself and their surroundings. Understanding this process can help you promote deeper learning.