When confronted with `accelerating globalisation, mounting quantities of information, the growing hegemony of science and technology, and the clash of civilisations,' what you need is not a hiding place but Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future (www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

The first mind is the disciplined one, which has mastered "at least one way of thinking — a distinctive mode of cognition that characterises a specific scholarly discipline, craft, or profession." It takes up to ten years to master a discipline, says Gardner, citing research. "Without at least one discipline under his belt, the individual is destined to march to someone else's tune."

The synthesising mind comes next. It can take information from disparate sources, understand and evaluate the same objectively, and put it together in ways that make sense. This capacity has become crucial in the context of information explosion.

The third, the creating mind, "puts forth new ideas, poses unfamiliar questions, conjures up fresh ways of thinking, and arrives at unexpected answers." Anchored in territories that are yet to be rule-governed, this mind can be "at least one step ahead of even the most sophisticated computers and robots."

No one can afford to be within one's own shell; it is increasingly necessary to understand others and work effectively with them. Which is why you need the fourth mind, the respectful one. "In a world where we are all interlinked, intolerance or disrespect is no longer a viable option," says the author.

More abstract than the respectful mind is the fifth and final mind Gardner describes: the ethical mind. It ponders "the nature of one's work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives. This mind conceptualises how workers can serve purposes beyond self-interest and how citizens can work unselfishly to improve the lot of all."

As a society we have been blind to the importance of these five minds, rues the author. It is up to the educational system as a whole to ensure that the ensemble of minds is cultivated, he suggests. "The burden of education must be shared by parents, neighbours, the traditional and digital media, the church, and other communal institutions." Computers can help achieve `literacy and a measure of disciplined thinking,' but moving towards `synthesising and creating' are human realms.

Gardner wraps up his book on an ominous note: that it may take "far more immediate threats to our survival before we make common cause with our fellow human beings."

Worth a mindful read.

Facts and figures are welcome ornaments, but the structure and processes of disciplines are the Christmas trees on which those ornaments must be hung. p.32
(like my Kansas Librarian in an Outer Mongolian Library metaphor)
You can't make yourself un-know what you know. A librarian from Kansas could walk into a library in Outer Mongolia and still know more about how to use the library than a native - even though all written communication proceeds in a direction 180 from Kansas.
------------------------------------------ ( )