Purpose and Ikigai

Reading Jun Wu's article, "Future Of Work: We Can’t All Become Coders," from 2020 really resonated with me. As someone teaching kids about computer science on a daily basis I think it is important to distinguish between the mindset that everyone has the ability to code and everyone should make coding their life. Often I hear people conflating the two ideas from a mistaken belief that simply saying coding isn't a great fit for everyone will automatically mean that certain populations are immediately closed off from accessing a future that includes coding. There is also a gap, at least in my mind, between our attempts to open coding for everyone but ensuring that we are doing so in a purposeful way, and at the root of that gap is the idea that jobs will be replaced by people who need to know how to code because, "65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist" (World Economic Forum 2016), a statistic that is interesting, inspiring, and shocking, but that also is very difficult to validate and is based on a cited source that no longer can be accessed (Berman, 2017).

Wu's statements about purpose and Ikigai, "the Japanese concept of finding your reason for being" (Wu, 2020), relate to both the technological trends and the workforce trends that are described in other readings. I think this is a central concept that we need to evaluate in terms of our schools as we think about preparing kids for the future and future workplaces. I would argue that we haven't created a system that supports students in finding their ikigai, and instead are perpetuating systems that prevent students from engaging meaningfully in that search in some misguided effort to prepare kids for future jobs based on flawed research about what the future looks like because we feel the urgency of technological shifts in our society. These articles and the Burning Glass article that talked about future jobs made me stop to consider how we might create a system that is based on the intersection of qualities that fill one's soul while also doing work that makes the world a better place without having to go into negative financial circumstances.

This is one of the biggest shifts we can make, because it starts from the perspective of purpose, something many students say they feel is lacking in education and that more and more younger people feel is important in the jobs, purchasing, and community as they make decisions for their future. It isn't enough to teach people how to code, we also need to teach them why to code, and we need to be okay supporting them in other ways if they say that coding might not be for them. That is a start, but I wonder what we might be able to accomplish if we reframe the conversations in ways that value what students value and are inspired by.

Works Cited:

Berman, A. M. (2017, July 6). The undead factoid: Who decided 65% of the jobs of the near future don't exist today? The Undead Factoid: Who Decided 65% of the Jobs of the Near Future Don't Exist Today? Retrieved May 17, 2022, from http://edtechcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-undead-factoid-who-decided-65-of.html

World Economic Forum. (2016, January). The Future of Jobs: Employment, skills and workforce strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. VOCEDplus, the international tertiary education and research database. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://www.voced.edu.au/content/ngv%3A71706

Wu, Jun. (February 26, 2020). Future Of Work: We Can’t All Become Coders. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2020/02/26/future-of-work-we-cant-all-becomecoders/?sh=3b272fe2cb8f