A Letter for the next generation students
Dear students,
As many of you are looking forward to the future, you should know that the world of the future will be the difference from today. Even as students, you need to be prepared to deal with these differences. There are many problems that you will have to face, but most of them will not be solved by an individual, by a company, of even by a country but a collective of many people and many countries working together. However, at this time, I do not see the possibility of that will happen because the view of many people is still a narrow isolated view. A senior manager once told me: “If it does not happen to me, I do not have to worry about it.” But I hope that as an educated person, you and people of your generation will have a different view.
The first problem many of you will face is the destruction of the environment. Although it happens everywhere, in every country, but some countries have more severe issues than others. Today, many rivers, ponds, lakes and even oceans are highly polluted because of toxic factories wastes. According to some studies, within the next ten years, no water creatures can survive this toxic water resulting in food shortage and famine. A well-known economist has warned: “Countries that have enough foods and clean water will control the world in the 21st century.” Soon your generation will be facing these questions: “What will happen if the environment is so toxic and there is no clean water? What will happen if the country faces famine and food shortage?” Could you accept the notion that if it does not happen yet, you do not have to worry about it?
The second problem is the loss of jobs due to technological advances. With the fully automated factories and smart robots, not only factory workers will lose their jobs, but also office workers as well. With the advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), many machines are getting smarter and can do many things that people cannot imagine they could. Last month, at Carnegie Mellon, we programmed several robots to play chess using sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms. What surprised us was the robots learn how to cheat each other to win the game. For years, robots only do whatever we program them to do, but recently after we added “machine learning” algorithms so robots can think for themselves. Suddenly we observed that several robots began to collaborate with others to cheat. Now we are facing many questions: What will happen to our world? What will happen if artificial intelligence will overtake human intelligence? What will happen when robots are smarter than human?
For many years teaching in several countries, I have seen many jobs disappeared and replaced by “automation” but how many people paid attention to the problem of high unemployment among labor workers and people whose jobs were being replaced. Their view is “if it does not happen to them, they do not worry about it.” But how many people have seen the devastating effects of high unemployment among young people with no hope and no future? Last summer, I gave a talk at an education conference and raised this issue, a person in the audience commented: “Why are you bother with unemployment issue in an education conference? It is a government's problem and an economic issue, not an education issue.” I answered: “No sir, it is our issue because if we do not solve the education issue to provide jobs to people, we will have to deal with the problems of people who have no future, no jobs, no direction and what do you think these angry people do? You can see the clear answer in some countries in the Middle East and Africa where extremists and terrorists are operating now. If people are not adequately educated about protecting their environment, we will have to deal with the problems of famine and diseases spreading all over the world. If people are not adequately educated so they can make a decent living and take care of their family, we will have to deal with the problems of anti-social activities or even terrorists spreading from one country to others. This is not the problem of any country or any region but the problem of the entire world, and both the cause and the solution are related to the issue of education. ”
As the advancement of technology is exploding all over the world, the education system must change quickly to meet the society needs. It must change from a traditional “knowledge transfer” approach to that of a “problem-solving” approach. Currently, we have many problems that need to be solved, but most of them will not be addressed by an individual, by a company, of even by a country but a collective of people and countries working together. To do that we need to change our thinking from an isolated view to a collective view. The current education system must change from an individual focus where students compete with others to a collaboration focus where they work together to solve problems because we are living in a connected world where everything is related.
Regardless which country that you live or what field that you study, all students must become lifelong learners to keep their knowledge up to date. Young people must read more, study more, to develop the proper knowledge and skills to survive in this competitive world. However, education should go beyond just provide technical knowledge and skills to develop a new generation of graduates with strong moral and ethical characters. Schools must be the places to develop students in both skills and characters. Students with profound knowledge and strong character can benefit the society and humanity, but a moral character is more important because technical people without moral characters can damage the society and the country.
As students, you need to have a clear direction, strong motivation, and enough patience to pursue your educational goals. There will always be obstacles and difficulties in wherever you do, but with strong moral characters, you should be able to overcome all to do great things. Only by achieving that, you will not disappoint your family and all teachers who have nurtured and educated you. Because you are the future of our country. I would like to give you a few pieces of advice
1) Learn to talk less and listen more then you will learn much more.
2) Learn to ask questions so you can understand things deeper.
3) Learn to think in other person's view, so you will understand them and develop an empathy with them.
4) Learn to be yourself, be honest and truthful with yourself.
5) Learn to offer help, as you help others, our hearts will open up more as you can make other people and yourselves happier.
5) Learn NOT to hurry, to capture the “moments” to enjoy the “Joys of life.” Not hurrying will allow you to appreciate the wonders of things in our life such as blooming flowers, enjoy a full moon, chasing butterflies, watching the sunset which will lead us to pursue that spiritual quest to understand the why. Through such deep appreciation of nature, etc., we will gradually become more authentic. When you become more authentic, you will be able to build a wonderful life with little regrets and more joys.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
