EDUCATION IN THE YEAR 2031!!!!! The University of Chicago, in 1931, invited professors from the Department of Education to create a one page statement, titled Prophecies, predicting the state of education 100 years later. Predict whether or not the statements made were true or false.

 Educational practices would lead toward adoption of a universal language. UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE  True True  False False

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE  This statement was true: “I expect much progress to be made toward a universal language.” Prophecy V

 Students would follow a method similar to Montessori’s ideas – self motivated and directed, independently studied, and with individualized plans for students in non-university settings. MONTESSORI?  True True  False False

MONTESSORI?  This statement was true: “individual lesson sheets and assignments are provision in education that will continue to care for the separate needs of individual pupils in the future.” Prophecy XIX  “The young people will increasingly get their own education under self-direction as guided by their knowledge of the science of human behavior.” Prophecy II

 Advances in the science of education will progress to the degree that teachers and administrators will have clear understandings of how to acquire desired results and diagnose and address learning disabilities. SCIENCE OF EDUCATION  True True  False False

SCIENCE OF EDUCATION  True!  “Most of the problems which baffle classroom teachers today, such as the diagnosis and treatment of disabilities in learning and the control of learning, will be so well understood by teachers in general…” XV  “The administration of education will likewise have become a science, and administrative officers will have become a science, and administrative officers will have such control of the facts which influence education that administrative difficulties will no longer be offered as excused for failure to put into practice the contributions of educational science.” XV

 Emphasis in education will shift from reading, writing, and arithmetic to social sciences and human understandings. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDINGS  True True  False False

SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING  “Greater emphasis will be placed upon an understanding of social institutions, modes of social behavior, and principles of social organization.” VI  “The science of human behavior will come to rank as the most important science, and all persons up to the limits of their ability will become familiar with it.” III  “What we know today as the “social studies” will assume a predominating place in secondary education.” XII

 New technologies will be incorporated into the educational process – radio, television, and moving pictures will provide students with opportunities for first hand experiences of distant places. TECHNOLOGY!  True True  False False

TECHNOLOGY  So true it hurts! “Entire schools and other educational institutions will be transported by air to distant points in order that pupils and students may obtain first-hand information and make personal observations.” XVI  “The present typical American method of teaching subject by use of highly condensed textbooks will give place to far better methods of teaching - …use of libraries, pictures, television, and direct observation.” I