This week, we invited Dr. Martyn Rawson from Germany to give a speech about the challenges we are facing in education and the tasks of preparing the next generations. Dr. Martyn started by giving views of the society and overall challenges the world is facing nowadays, including economic, cultural, and ecological challenges. We are living in a time called liquid or fluid modernity, which means that everything is in movement rather than fixed, and the world is changing extremely quickly. Zygmund Bauman pointed out six contradictory situations of the society:

1. Globalization in every aspect while new forms of nationalism appear.

2. The ideal of cosmopolitanism while people experience more xenophobia.

3. Most of the countries are living out the consequences of post culturalism while decolonizing and developing indigenous cultures are encouraged.

4. Having the autonomy and freedom to decide while various levels of totalitarianism try to control us.

5. Searching for inner security and meanings while outer insecurity is increasing.

6. Maintain ecological balance by giving up some conveniences while chaos, disasters such as extreme weather conditions happen.

　　These factors make the next generation studying in an undependable condition, students may be afraid and unsure cause they have no path to follow. The best example of this is the changing professions, lots of in-demand jobs nowadays didn’t even exist 10 years ago, so we cannot be sure that what the students learn today is still going to be useful when they enter the workplaces.

　　To correspond with this situation, Dr. Martyn mentioned three main functions of education: socialization, qualification, and becoming a subject, which extremely important in the occupation field. In the company in which We are currently working, expect employees to be great team players, have the ability to solve problems and make decisions independently, and provide personal perspectives on wicked issues the company is facing every day.

　　What really inspires us was that he valued the situations we are all used to and reinterpreted them, for example, the internet seems to give everyone freedom to learn from online digital content, while we might actually be "controlled" all the time since the government or organizations manipulates public opinion by releasing incorrect and twisted information. This brings up another topic that was discussed in the class: science, which used to be something we could rely on, has changed. Not only because it is becoming more complicated for most of us to understand but also there is so much fake news that people really don't know what to believe.

　　Overall, the lecture reminded us how many changes are happening in our society. Innovation and adjustment of education are necessary and have to start immediately. Moreover, not only do the students have to be flexible, education itself should also be elastic enough for all kinds of changes.