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INTRODUCTION

This book explores how today's kids and the world are changing, and what that means for what young people need to be ready for adulthood. Most schools, curriculums, and youth programs were not designed for this new reality. Instead, systems like public schools operate from outdated models meant to prepare farm kids to work in factories. Beyond farms and factories, our public schools were also designed for a white student body. Consequently, our school system consistently advantages white students over their Black and brown peers.

Today, young people are transitioning into an adult life full of rapid change and unpredictability. It is time for us to update our understanding of what young people need and upgrade their educational and preparatory experiences accordingly. Doing so gives us the opportunity to redesign education in ways that remove historic barriers to opportunity and harmful policies and practices; it also provides an opportunity to construct a more holistic approach to learning that is steeped in the real world and levels the playing field.

This Book Is for You

This book is for anyone who supports young people's learning and development. This includes those on the education frontlines—teachers, counselors, parents, and youth workers—and those running our schools, districts, and community programs, who make the policy and practice decisions that impact so many kids’ lives and learning experiences.

When I taught and ran a school, I knew we were working off of outdated information, but I didn't have the time or resources to find what I needed to update our thinking and modernize practice. Knowing these real constraints, this book was designed to:

 Include information you need but don't have time to look for.

 Organize that information in ways that are easy to read and act on.

 Make this enjoyable to read, whether you take it on cover to cover or in pieces.

In Chapter 1, we consider today's kids—how they are wired by their experiences, what they care about, and what makes them so different from the rest of us. We see what it means that they don't know a world without high-speed internet and smartphones. We meet the recession-resilient high school graduating class of 2020, who entered kindergarten during the Great Recession and graduated high school during COVID-19. We come face-to-face with a generation of kids who crave safety and stability and hope for a steady job and good life.

In Chapter 2, we examine our rapidly changing world and workplace. We explore how machines, sheer momentum, and an evolving market are reshaping how we live, learn, and work. We consider the jobs and skills of the future, and the roles that artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality will play in tomorrow's workplace. We wrap up with some predictions on what kinds of work young people will likely experience over their lifetimes.

The first part of the book makes it clear that our de facto “checklist for adulthood”—finish high school, go to college, graduate, get a job, make money, get promoted (or find a better job), retire, and live comfortably—no longer holds. Tomorrow's world is a vast and ever-evolving opportunity marketplace that demands certain life currencies to make it. These currencies are competencies, connections, credentials, and cash.

The second part of the book dives into these four currencies. Chapter 3 describes the competencies young people must develop before they transition into adulthood, including the abilities to focus, problem solve, relate, and engage with others. Chapter 4 examines the connections—relationships and social capital—young people rely on in school, at work, and in everyday life. Chapter 5 addresses the massive changes underway in the postsecondary education world. We will see what a modern high school diploma should include and consider which questions young people need to answer before choosing a postsecondary credential. In Chapter 6, we get honest about how much cash matters, but how little we talk about it in education. We look at the link between learning and living and see what young people need to get by and get ahead.

The final part of the book lays out five characteristics of currency-builders, that is, educators—inside and outside of the classroom—who transform the places and spaces where young people learn into currency-rich environments. You will find these characteristics work at home, at school, in the workplace, and in the community. They can be operationalized in-person, online, or both.

These currencies can be learned, earned, or inherited. America's long history of racism has made it harder for Black, brown, indigenous, and immigrant families to build and pass down currencies to their children. Generations of discrimination and struggle mean that their families often don't start out with enough financial or social capital. These young people have to work hard to make up the difference and, because of continued exclusionary practices, work harder than their white peers to accrue more.

Because of this, the currencies—along with the currency-building strategies presented in this book—must be viewed with a racial equity lens.

Bottom line: it is hardest for young people of color to make it in America. Our schools, workplaces, hospitals, and other systems were not designed with them in mind. This is only compounded when those young people have other experiences that push them farther to the margins. This might include being disabled, poor, or undocumented, experiencing housing instability, or being systems-involved—or even several of these experiences at once. These young people are forced to endure the universal stresses and challenges of today's world, while also taking on a whole other set of race- and experience-related challenges that make it much harder to succeed overall.

Let's Face It—the Future Is Now

I was finishing the first draft of this book when a bat in a Chinese meat market got someone sick and infected the world. Overnight, many of our households became home schools, and we were all reminded that school is much more than where kids go to get academic content. The pandemic illustrated how closely young people's quality of learning is tied to their quality of life. Right away, we saw kids with the most social and financial resources doing much better than their more isolated and cash-strapped peers. The year 2020 exposed the many ways a crisis can affect young people's current and future life trajectories.

Those growing up on America's social and economic fault lines—divides that continue to be marked by race and class—were hardest hit and most held back. COVID-19 illuminated the many ways that volatility, disparity, and disruption will define all kids’ lives, and especially the most vulnerable.

What happens to young people today will impact what they are capable of as future workers and heads of households. Too often, we talk about the future of work but not tomorrow's workers. Or, we talk about the future of learning but not the changing workforce and economy. This book is an attempt to bring those conversations together.

A Few Other Considerations

Early into the writing process, I called my brother in a panic. He is a journalist and radio producer, and I needed his advice. My book research and interviews kept elevating the importance of mental health and youth development, but I was trying to write a book about education and preparation. He encouraged me to discuss those themes up front. So here they are.

It did not matter who I interviewed—young people, teachers, parents, policymakers, professors, employers, or pediatricians—everyone had two of the same concerns when we talked about preparing today's kids in tomorrow's world:

 Today's kids are overloaded and overwhelmed. If young people are too stressed, stretched, or sad to show up to school or work, they will not make it. This goes before and beyond the currencies and requires that we prioritize young people's mental health, identity development, individual experiences, stress management, and cognitive load. We have to get this right. The ability to manage constant overwhelm and overload will be their oxygen mask.

 What we call “enrichment” or “extracurricular” is essential and expensive. I was surprised by how often currencies are accrued by participating in the arts, athletics, camps, and clubs. In education, the past 20 years have focused on academic success; the next 20 need to include social and emotional development, as well as cognitive and physical fitness.

Finally, I was surprised to learn that many of today's kids will live to be at least 100. And yet, that is least true for children of color and those born into poverty. Too many of these children will not even make it past the first-quarter of life. If science says all children could have a 100-year-life, then we must shift how we talk about the future and youth readiness, committing to a new set of preparatory and protective factors—what I call currencies and currency-building strategies—that will make the prospect of a 100-year livable life more than a possibility.