Our July speaker was a philosopher – the kind with degrees! Kirk McDermid is a Canadian with multiple degrees and a lot of experience with higher learning – in Canada and the United States.

On July 4, he engaged our Probus audience with information about the trends of higher education and the challenge of helping ourselves and our younger family members to revisit higher education – its purposes; its gifts; and how we can facilitate healthy preparation for not only learning, but life.

Instead of following the societal patterns and expectations of focusing on immediate economic  returns and narrow career preparation, Dr. McDermid asks us to encourage those making choices in higher education and those in the early years of university to focus on what excites them; on what they are learning that has upended their previous world view.  This is the place of growth; the land of excitement; the place where learners see greater possibilities and develop limitless career possibilities.

The future asks its up-and-coming citizens not for lower order thinking like memorization and specific skills, but rather higher orders of thinking, like the habits of mind. These are the tools that will equip the next generation for the greatest flexibility of work opportunities as well as the nexus of innovation and personal satisfaction.

So, in your chats with the younger generation, invite them to leave the “wisdom of what career one should go into” and instead speak to their heart and soul. Listen for what excites them and encourage their interests – the areas that will bring gifts to themselves and to our future world.

Janet Walker