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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 077 069 EA 004 785 AUTHOR Worth, Walter H.,; And Others TITLE A Choice of Futures. INSTITUTION Alberta Commission on Educational Planning, Edmonton. PUB DATE [72] NOTE 337p. AVAIIAELE FROMHurtig Publishers, 225 Birks Building, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)($6.00, plus mailing) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HCJ$13.16 DESCRIPTORS *Continuous Learning; Economic Factors; Educational Coordination; Educational Finance; Educational Needs; Educational Objectives; *Educational Planning; *Educational Resources; *Futures (of Society); Governance; *Learning Processes; Organization; Prediction; Professional Personnel; Social Problems; Social Structure; Technological Advancement; arend Analysis IDENTIFIERS Alberta; Canada; Experiential Learning ABSTRACT The Commission was commended to investigate social, economic, and technological trends inAlberta for the next 20 years; to examine the needs of all individuals in the Province; to analyze total educational requirements; and to recommend future changes, structures, and priorities necessary for a comprehensive educational system. Between 1969 and 1972, with the help of expert consultants, the Commission sponsored or co-sponsored research studies, held public hearings involving people across the Province, received briefs, convened large conferences, and launched major task force investigations which were made public in 1971. From these resources, the Commission analyzed what people wanted. This analysis resulted in a number of educational ideals, principles, and goals shared by the great majority of citizens, which are presented here. The report also suggests structures, processes, plans, resource management, and priorities designed to help make the good forecasts be true, the bad forecasts be untrue, and the unchangeable forecasts at least tolerable. (Illustrations and photographs may photograph poorly.) (Author) FILMED FROM BEST AVAILABLE COPY U.S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION k.s DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- ,UCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM F PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- .% TING IT POINTS OF VI:.W OR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NO tNECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY a choice of futures o a choice of futures o a choice or CD SeAVAZ14AI s, FD) rcp co 0 co O (13 o - 4. ',4*k 4/0 .f oeoloyo e o saintn1 fo aolotio eo aoiogo e AO.' 9,9(3.SC5 .°'6\4 0°C ,&,00&. eO GOer .40 sia .00. ps.\ Oa" \ ,s4 TC. vz < ocr I This report represents a choice of futures in the same way Commission Board be recognized. Since the Commission's that a television schedule represents a choice of features; inception they have been involved in defining operational that is, the final choice belongs to the reader. The programs policies and procedures, coordinating activities, analyzing offered reflect the opinions, the scholarship and the imagina- information and proposals, and advising on the development tion of thousands of Albertans and a host of international of this report. The collective wisdom and perceptions of craftsmen, all working behind the scenes. But these program3 Al Anderson, Lorne Downey, Leonard Haney, Bernie Keeler, will achieve their purpose only if tens of thousands of Henry Kolesar, Michael O'Byrne and Sam Smith, have been Albertans tune them in. of very great value. It must be made clear, however, that The Commission's mandate amounts, to a call upon people while they endorse most of what is in the report, each may and their concerns-now, and in the future. In this instance, take exception to certain aspects of it. Indeed, the differences many were called and many were chos n. Priorities were in their perspectives was a major source of strength for assessed;, directions were plotted; strategies were planned. the Commissionv Sometimes, between two doubtful proposals, neither was From the outset, the Commission has been viewed as an chosen. At other times, between two promising solutions, instrument for mobilizing the time, talents and energies of both were chosen. That is why there are some choices that Albertans in designing a system of schooling that will be a await your agreement, while others await bridge VI tomorrow. Thus, the goal of this report is to extend your judgment Many of these choices the dialcgue initiated and maintained over the past two years cannot wait for long. -to build a basis for understanding and action that equates Freedom to choose is often accom- the future and education The Commission believes that the panied by controversy. The airing of future of education is both vital and negotiable This differences is a necessary first step to- document has been produced with those two words in mind ward a more cohesive view of what we The report is intended to be an invitation, not a command, desire as a people. And it is this growing a catalyst, not a conclusion; the first stage of a development community of vision that must guide our plan, not a finished blueprint The issues are too important future endeavors in education and the stakes are too high for it to be otherwise Although singling out any person or Albertans must now choose We are not merely parts of the group for special mention is as future, taken together we are its cause What tomorrow holds hazardous as it depends on all of us-on what we foresee, on what we believe, is difficult, it is and on what we do. And five or 10 or 20 years from today we important that will have only ourselves to praise or blame the role of the members of the Commissioner Walter H Worth 11111111111111111 Tomorrow's educational services cannot be dealt with in conven- tional terms Hence this report, like many of the activities leading up to it, is different. Tomorrow: Futures-Forecasts The usual documentation in the form of footnotes and quotations Anticipation of probable social, economic and technological is missing. Instead, the vast array of complex, and sometimes developments that will influence the needs of individuals and the nature disparate, information available to the Commission has been boiled of schooling in the decades ahead down and simplified in an effort to illuminate the issues and oppor- tunities that lie ahead. Communication was deemed to be more jj important than scholarly respectability Those concerned about the latter may consult the selected references in Appendix C. A Sense of Direction Similarly , bsent is the lengthy listing of recommendations charac- Description of ideals, principles and goals to guide our educational responses to changing conditions. teristic of traditional royal commission reports. Again readability was 36 a consideration. More important, however, was the complex inter- locking of problems that would not yield to discrete or simplistic solutions. This is not to say that the report does not make proposals Structure for change. It does. And it makes many. But they are made in Delineation of ways to organize, govern and coordinate our context, and should be examined and interpreted the same way efforts to move in new directions. 64 not lifted out for inspection in isolation. The proposals for change advanced in thib report represent a 1 7 synthesis of information gleaned from the various public involve- ment, research and correlative projects outlined in Appendix A. Process In the process of synthesis many ideas and much data were con- Elaboration of approaches to learning and teaching that sidered by a number of individuals and groups. The sources of will help us achieve our aspirations. 152 information were so numerous, and in many instances so over- -- lapping, that their origins are legion The Commission humbly acknowledges its indebtedness to all those persons who participated in the preparation of the documents listed in Appendix B and Planning Appendix C for their many ideas-perhaps even for some of their Explanation of means for checking and altering future courses of action 218 words. j Resources Identification of people, places, things and dollars required to produce change and improvement. 236 Next Steps Indication of some immediate starting-points 296 Appendices Information about the bases for this report, including more conventional and detailed listings of its contents in Appendix D and Appendix E beginning on page 321 304 1972 Published by L. S. Wall Queen's Printer for the Province of Alberta 11510 Kingsway Avenue, Edmonton T5G 2Y5 ILa Our future holds two certainties: one, that it is ahead of us, when interpreting them. For example, the word will should be the other, that it will arrive read as though it were preceded by probably or likely. All All other matters assigned to our tomorrow can be con- dates applied to future events should be treated as educated sidered only according to their degrees of probability. This is guesses Furthermore, like life itself, the forecasts contain why effective planning in education, as in every field of human some elements of contradiction. endeavor, inevitably must involve making bets on the future. Despite their shortcomings, futures-forecasts are essential The more information we have, the better the odds. The bet- sources of data. They provide a picture of tomorrow that may ter the odds, the greater the chances of our developing a be considered as relevant as the realities of today. One dif- system of education that will help us win the race for survival. ference, however, lies in our ability to alter the course of The futures-research undertaken by the Commission, and each. Today's reality is passing. Tomorrow's reality remains selected investigations by others, are very briefly summarized to be influenced. in this section. These studies yield forecasts about the nature Knowledge indicating where present trends may lead is and timing of future events primarily based on extrapolations both a prerequisite to, and a stimulus for, the definition of from current trends. Such forecasts describe what could or alternative futures. The definition and assessment of alterna- might happen in Alberta during the last third of the 20th tive futures is a responsibility that belongs to each of us.