After discovering the meaning of uncertainty, what it meant to me, and also what most people in the world are uncertain about, I started to engage with more people about my chosen uncertainty (my BA certificate). I continued my conversation with an individual from Gen Y after I examined how Gen X felt about their certificate the week before. She finished her Bachelor’s degree as well as Master’s degree in the UK and mentioned a similar feeling I had in the beginning, which was a feeling of pride. On the other hand, she felt nervous about keeping up with high and continuously changing standards, as well as bringing a certain balance into her life at a certain age i.e. meaning being able to challenge herself and look after herself in terms of health and managing workload and duties altogether. Besides this, I started to narrow down my topics regarding uncertainty into the future of education, the future of mental health, and how the lifestyle of the modern society will affect modern society, and implying what impact this will have on our mind and brain, with considerations to new inventions and applications. I questioned whether this will additionally have an impact on therapists and will change the meaning of the job. Finally, having the uncertainty of being able to keep up with all these new designs and constructions, and acknowledging discoveries like cryptocurrency is an example of a new concept I am not too familiar with. The reason for choosing the uncertainty of education was due to many students feeling unprepared for the real job world, and generally the real world with life skills such as understanding taxes, finding a job, etc: https://www.complex.com/style/2015/08/fashion-students-say-schools-arent-helping-them-find-jobs-after-graduation
The rationale for being unsure about the lifestyle of the modern society is due to the change of social behaviors since social media causes loneliness and often less real-life interactions: https://www.uow.edu.au/media/2020/does-social-media-make-us-more-or-less-lonely-depends-on-how-you-use-it.php
My third uncertainty that was put into my box was on mental health and how it will change and develop in the coming years, seeing that my generation (Gen Z) is mostly affected by it, as many events around the world happen that are out of their hands.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/gen-z
This is also connected to the fact that this generation had to grow up with a global pandemic, social media harassment, and fewer job opportunities:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-is-gen-z-depressed#stigmas
Thinking about a topic like the future of education and the doubt of my BA certificate and if it will be enough, I would put this uncertainty in an envelope or folder, place it next to other important documents like my driver’s license, etc. and store it until it is needed.
I also started my research on the future of education and what it might look like, such as focusing more on online education and learning, having more freedom to work on your own skills, and working more practically. Further to this, I questioned if mentors could play a much bigger role and offer different kinds of learning material to students, which will also be more creative: https://www.eduauraa.com/blog/what-will-education-look-like-in-20-years
I started to explore this deeper and examined the German and UK school system, realizing that in Germany children are judged too early of what they are capable of, and what their future will look like: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/issues-german-education-system-indemy-student-channel?trk=pulse-article_more-articles_related-content-card , in comparison to the UK being competition focused and creating an uncomfortable feeling in the classroom leading to poor mental health: https://www.derby.ac.uk/blog/the-uk-education-system-have-we-got-it-wrong/ . Taking this into account, it is questionable if these systems are ready for the future, especially in comparison to countries like Estonia which takes the stress of exams off of a young age, and leads to better mental health: https://www.derby.ac.uk/blog/the-uk-education-system-have-we-got-it-wrong/ .
Taking all this into account, I understand the future requires different learning approaches for diverse children, and that it is necessary to prepare them for real-life situations, such as taxes, mortgages, etc. In addition to this, they also need to be provided with the chance to grow before they are being put in a box, and let them explore different skills such as hands-on skills, as well as creative skills equal to the already existing subjects. This will allow them to develop confidence and avoid them leaving school thinking they are not worthy enough or futile just because they were limited in exploring different elements of job opportunities.
