President Obama, our candidates for mayor, all political leaders speak the same call -- we must win the future. And they're right, because after all we're going to spend the rest of our lives there. But where exactly do we best find and follow that future?
Well, some numbers for you. Right here in Chicago, riding their very own fleet-to-the-future. In 2011 this fleet of yellow school buses transported more than 5 million inquiring students to the Lincoln Park and Brookfield Zoos, 3 million to the Field Museum and Museum of Science & Industry, 2 million to the Shedd Aquarium, and another 1 1/2 million to the Art Institute.
None of those kids can vote nor hold office. But very soon now they will. The challenge for any futurist is to energize their minds -- both in and out of the classroom -- to seek higher goals and better ways. Right now, presidents and mayors depend on you and me, a population of minds already shaped (or mishaped). However, it's on these as yet unshaped minds that our future will soon enough depend (remember how young Gates and Zuckerberg were when they changed our world).
Nothing new about looking to our children for our future. Standard political rhetoric. But what's new this time is the time-line.Shorter and tougher than ever.And dozens of other nations are on the very same hunt with their kids
So the next time you see one of this fleet-to-the-future driving by, give 'em a wave. Better yet, a salute. Because you see, all those yelping little bodies in there are on their way to tomorrow.To help them on their ride -- really our ride too! -- we need to support them big time.
By the way we nourish them at home...send them our best teachers at school...and back those political leaders with the finest fast-track visions for our wavering educational system.
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And I never took the time to think about those buses this way. Shame on me
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