If you listened to some of the things academics, business experts and policymakers have been saying about how the world has changed, and is changing, you would be forgiven for thinking that everything changes – nothing stands still. And these changes are volatile and unpredictable, and they can cause a great deal of chaos and confusion if we don’t learn how to deal with them properly. Usually, these people go on to make some recommendations on what and how we ought to teach in schools so that the next generation will be able to not only survive but thrive in such a world. I agree with a lot of things these people say. But I also think that some things – some very important things, namely, what is good and the idea of doing no harm – do not change, and it is these things that give meaning to what we do every day. This also has implications for what and how we ought to teach in schools. In fact, there are subjects in the traditional curriculum that are particularly useful in helping us deal with a VUCA world - Philosophy and Literature.

1. The 11th Annual Inter-School Philosophy Dialogue | Raffles Institution | 2014
HOW THE WORLD HAS (AND HASN’T) CHANGED
AND WHAT IT IMPLIES FOR EDUCATION
WONG YEW LEONG
Dunne & Raby, Digicars, from United Micro Kingdoms, 2013. CGI by Tommaso Lanza.

2. We live in a volatile,
uncertain, complex and
ambiguous world.

3. The Internet is a
BIGTURBO
BOOSTER
BUTTON

4. We are becoming richer, so we are spending on
not only function but also form.

5. In order to thrive in a volatile, uncertain,
complex and ambiguous world, we need to be
flexible, adaptable, creative and
experimental; we need to be able to analyze
things thoroughly, see things from multiple
perspectives, grasp the interconnections
between multiple forces, synthesize
knowledge and information from different
sources, and generate solutions that meet
opposing needs.

6. “Man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts
which make him unique among the animals: so
that, unlike them, he is not a figure in the
landscape – he is a shaper of the landscape. …
[M]an is the only one who is not locked into his
environment. His imagination, his reason, his
emotional subtlety and toughness, make it possible
for him not to accept the environment but to
change it.”
Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man, 1972.

7. Elemental’s Half-A-House project in Monterrey, Mexico, 2011.

9. Present
Possible
Plausible
Probable
Adapted from Dunne & Raby.
Plausible
Possible

10. Jaemin Paik, When We All Live to 150, 2012.

11. Ai Hasegawa, I Wanna Deliver a Shark, 2012. Photography by Theo Cook.

12. James Chambers,
Attenborough Design
Group: Radio
Sneezing, 2010.
Photograph by Theo
Cook.
James Chambers,
Attenborough Design
Group: Hard Drive
Standing, 2010.
Photograph by J. Paul
Neeley.

13. Dunne & Raby, Digiland, from United Micro Kingdoms, 2013. Animation by Nicolas
Myers.

14. Revital Cohen, Respiratory Dog, 2008, from the series Life Support.

15. The Tissue Culture and Art Project (Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr), Victimless Leather:
A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket Grown in a Technoscientific “Body”, 2004.
Biodegradable polymer connective and bone cells. Photograph courtesy of The
Artists. Hosted at SymbioticA, The University of Western Australia.

18. Embarcadero Freeway, San Francisco, after the 1989 earthquake.

19. Present
Possible
Plausible
Probable
Adapted from Dunne & Raby.
Plausible
Possible
Preferable