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News from the
World Future Society
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Future Generations Fund to Support Youth Projects
by Timothy C. Mack, President
Support is needed for young people struggling with the future, says
World Future Society president.
The World Future Society has now embarked on an exciting new program, the Future
Generations Fund, which will provide support and resources to young people everywhere as
they prepare to participate in a rapidly changing world, one in which foresight will be an
increasingly vital skill.
A critical question facing the world is how we can help to ensure that the youth of today
will understand their choices, have the capacity to make the best decisions, and create
the best possible outcomes in their future roles as voters, workers, and leaders.
Preparing for the Future
Members worldwide have long benefited from the World Future Society's thought-provoking
programs and innovative methods of thinking about the future. As the Society moves
forward, it aims to excite and enable youth in many parts of the world to connect and
prepare for their future in a positive way. The Future Generations Fund is both a
philanthropic and programmatic endeavor and has stemmed from the mission and commitment of
the World Future Society.
People often wonder what can be done about the future. Encouraging youth to take
responsibility for their own futures in a reasonable and positive way is a promising form
of constructive action. By placing the focus on youth and encouraging educators to develop
methods for teaching foresight skills, the Fund will enable younger people to prepare for
their future and ours.
The founder of the World Future Society, Edward Cornish, writes in his book Futuring:
The Exploration of the Future, "Today's children put a human face on the future.
We instinctively feel responsible for their welfare and try to help them. We also know
that today's children will be tomorrow's parents with children of their own, and other
generations will follow. Children remind us of the responsibility that we bear for other
people, including those others who have not yet come into existence."
Youth can sometimes view the future in fatalistic terms and become discouraged. The
Future Generations Fund will strive to provide educators with tools to guide the optimism
and energy of young people to enable them to make better decisions and think ahead,
setting goals and improving their lives.
What Will the Future Generations Fund Accomplish?
The coordinated thrust of the Future Generations Fund distills 40 years of experience
into a set of programs designed to assist children and youth. The Fund will serve as an
umbrella, enclosing a range of programs that focus on guiding and helping youth. Here is
an outline of a few of these programs:
- Educational Web design for high school and college students. This
program will be developed in partnership with the Global SchoolNet Foundation
(www.globalschoolnet.org), which connects and informs a network of 70,000 teachers.
Students participating in the CyberFair competition will be encouraged to "Unite and
Prepare for the Future!" by thinking about their own future plans, the conditions
that will affect the future of their community, and issues of global importance. Their
teachers will encourage the participating students to develop their best ideas on planning
for the future, tackling such issues as how to protect the environment in their
communities. Students, working in small teams, will conduct original research to produce
high-quality, educational Web projects that will be available as learning tools to
millions of people around the globe.
Competition judging also takes place online, as students themselves evaluate the
projects of other schools by using an online assessment tool designed by Global SchoolNet.
The top-ranking entries are reviewed by a panel of Society judges to determine the best of
the best. A digest can be delivered to the local mayor, state governor, or other local
leader. At the local level, a dignitary may be asked to make the award at a school
assembly, accompanied by a local futurist. At the national level, a public figure or
authority in the subject area of the project may be most appropriate for final award
presentations, which will take place at the World Future Society conference in Chicago at
the end of July 2005. Projects will be archived in a searchable online library and serve
as a model and inspiration for future projects.
- Teachers' guides to the future. To assist educators, WFS will provide
guides for teachers in middle school, high school, and college. The guides will inform
teachers of the most-useful resources--books, PowerPoint presentations, DVDs, etc. They
will be supported by the Society through its Web site and e-mail services.
Guidelines for teaching high-school and college students how to think about and prepare
for the future are part of this package.
- Scholarships at the WFS conferences. The Society will offer special
opportunities for students who wish to attend its conferences. The selection process would
be managed locally and the funding shared between the local WFS chapter and the national
office. In addition, WFS is offering a low-cost student membership to interested youth
from all over the world.
- Web resources: "Youth Net" youth-to-youth program. This is
one of the most exciting aspects of this set of projects, as it will give initiative for
new programs to the students themselves. New ideas can be shared, discussed, and even
uploaded onto the site for other groups to review. An electronic chat room for young
futurists is part of the package, as is a youth-presentations track for imaginative and
innovative events at each annual meeting. Especially promising is the worldwide aspect of
this effort, bringing young people together from across the globe.
- Adopt-a-Class program. This program is designed for a class of about 25
to 30 students at the secondary level. The program package will include a teacher's guide,
a copy of Futuring: The Exploration of the Future, and access to a resource Web
site. The Society will provide reading lists, syllabi developed by other teachers,
certificates for students completing the course, an essay contest, guidance on classroom
projects (e.g., newspapers about the future using material provided by the Youth Futures
News Service), and scenario development.
- Instructional Modules for Teachers. These modules would consist of a
set of instructions and a variety of materials that can equip a teacher for explaining
clearly and vividly specific topics, such as forecasting techniques, economic trends, or
the use of history in futuring. Possible resources to accompany these modules might
include Futuring by Edward Cornish, copies of THE FUTURIST magazine, and additional
materials under development.
- Students' guides to the future. One of the first of these guides will
concern World Trends and Forecasts. This student-friendly publication would provide basic
information for students on the most significant trends, such as technological progress,
economic growth, environmental decline, and increasing mobility. This information is
designed to aid young people in understanding how to relate trends to their own personal
concerns. The World Future Society is currently searching for funding to underwrite this
effort and working with partners to maximize the effectiveness of the tools we develop.
- Discovery tools. As well, we are working with a group in the science
and technology area to develop "discovery tools" for school-age inventors to
solve new and challenging social and economic problems. This program is based on a recent
Smithsonian Institution conference on Inventing for Humanity and modeled on an approach
involving youth in technology innovation already utilized in Japan, where high-school
students successfully produced a major breakthrough involving hydrogen-powered cars.
- University and professional programs. At the college level, WFS is
reviewing the state of university training in foresight studies around the world and will
be completing a comprehensive study of this area by the end of the year. This has been an
area of global concern, and the foresight community needs to better understand the options
for developing new tools and teaching futures skills in ways that reach a broader
audience.
Other recent WFS initiatives relating to ongoing education have included co-sponsoring a
foresight policy conference at Tamkang University in Taiwan and a Nanotech innovation
conference at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. The Society is now working
with the faculty at George Washington University to develop a conference on space
business, to be followed by other possible conferences on telecommunications,
biotechnology, cognitive science, and robotics. This effort is part of an adult-learning
program that has been targeted at mid-career and postretirement audiences, and the Society
is working with a variety or organizations to reach those groups.
Conclusion: WFS for the Future
The ultimate outcome of this range of efforts is yet to be determined, but clearly a new
spirit of endeavor is under way. While the World Future Society has long been dedicated to
offering the tools and critical information necessary to make some sense out of the
future, we are now committed as well to working toward a better world, both on behalf of
our members and for young people around the globe.
About the Author
Timothy C. Mack is president of the World Future Society and editor of Futures
Research Quarterly.
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