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| The 11th International Forum on Lifelong Integrated Education 2014 |
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Lifelong Integrated Education
The Space Age – Awakening to the Unchangeable Values
Our Responsibility to the Future
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The Hallmark of the 21st century is the accelerated pace of change in our lives and times as a result of ongoing scientific and technological progress.
Just think of the robot that vacuum our homes to perfection while we are
out having fun, or 3-D printers that reproduce three-dimensional objects
with ease.
And our smartphones that enable us to receive mail and information and play games even while we are out walking.
What has become of us today, excited with incredibly advanced devices and novel information, we find ourselves cornered in the effort of keeping up with it all? Gone are the days when we received precious lessons as we grew up, with every member of the family playing his or her role. We learned not to waste but to take good care of things and to live modestly and to support each other.
When did modern conveniences become part of our lives?
We can now connect conveniently with anyone and anything, which makes us think that we can manage everything and on our own.
Before we know it, the conveniences that scientific civilization provides will rob us of meaningful communication within our families and among our friends as well as with our neighbors, leading us to isolation and confrontation.
In this 21st century, as if in inverse proportion to our lives of convenience and comfort, we are rushing straight towards a society that challenges our very existence with loss of humanity, tragic conflicts between peoples and states and devastation of the environment.
Human relations that should be treasured are today measured by economic values, while striking innovations of science blind us to the most important values. We see the results in rising tensions among countries over territorial claims on land and sea and over energy and resources. Tensions are also running high between races and religions. And while we talk about living in a globalized world, we lose sight of the things that are truly precious because we are caught up too often in having to cope with the crisis at hand.
Since emerging from our primitive origins humankind continues to survive after overcoming countless conflicts and confrontations.
Is it not true to say that we who are endowed with life passed on to us from time immemorial are now in danger of losing sight of what we are, forced to survive the unprecedented challenges brought upon us in our fast changing times?
Never have human beings experienced such rapid change as in this age in
which we are obliged to race to catch up with information propelling us
to catch up with information that will be obsolete tomorrow. Are we not
in danger of destroying ourselves...?
Let us remind ourselves that we are here today because we have successfully come through a long process of evolution since our primitive beginnings.
Human history must have survived to this day because there were things
that did not change and values that stood the test of the evolving world,
and should be preserved when everything else is changing at such speed
around us.
They are the values that must not be lost in the whirlwind of change in our Space Age; they are values that do not ever diminish. Rediscovering and awakening to these unchanging values — this I believe is the responsibility we owe future generations.
What then are these unchanging values?
What should we do and how should we live in order to secure a better and brighter future for the coming generations?
These are the issues I most wish to explore and discuss with you at the
forthcoming 11th International Forum on Lifelong Integrated Education 2014.
June 2014, Tokyo
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Yumiko Kaneko
Director General
Nomura Center for Lifelong Integrated Education |
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Nomura Center for Lifelong Integrated Education
