If you’re a parent, then you’ve probably had this moment.
Your child asks you something at the dinner table – about AI, or a job that didn’t exist five years ago, or whether university is even worth it anymore – and you realise, somewhere between the pasta and the dishes, that you don’t fully know how to answer.
Not because you’re not smart. But because the world they’re asking about isn’t the world you were trained for.
That feeling doesn’t mean you’re falling behind – it means you’re actually paying attention. And more importantly, it’s the type of thinking that is needed to be future-fit.
It’s the type of thinking that’s critical if we want to be equipped to adapt to change.
I mean, let’s be honest – there’s been a whole heap of change and disruption that’s been arriving this decade, totally uninvited. For our schools. For our kids. For us as parents.
I like to imagine a trapeze artist when I’m talking about change. Bear with me here… this is not a squirrel!
A trapeze artist can’t let go of one bar until they can see the next one. And when they hesitate mid-air, it’s not because they’re weak or stubborn – it’s because the second bar isn’t quite where it should be yet. It’s blurry, or moving, or hidden.
And that’s where many of us are right now. Not resistant. Just… gripping. And some of us are gripping so hard that our eyes are closed and we don’t want to look around us for fear of what we’ll see… I mean, you can’t really blame us with all that the 2020s have already thrown our way!
But the work of becoming “future-fit” isn’t about predicting what’s coming.
Nobody can do that. It’s about training ourselves to see the bars a little earlier. To notice what’s actually shifting in our world, our country, our kids’ lives – so we can make conscious choices about what to grab hold onto and what to release.
When we were at school, we were rewarded for knowing things. Looking ahead, our kids will be rewarded for their ‘human’ skills.
We were rewarded for fitting in. They’ll be rewarded for knowing who they are.
We were rewarded for compliance. They’ll need curiosity, courage, and the ability to keep learning long after the school-leaving certificates are filed away somewhere.
Our job isn’t to prepare our kids for the world we knew. It’s to prepare them for the one they’re walking into.
So, here’s the invitation: Ask the harder questions. Be willing to unlearn a few of the things you were taught about what “good education” looks like. Stay curious – together.
Because the most powerful thing any of us can do right now isn’t to have all the answers.
It’s to keep asking better questions.
Jude Foulston, author of today’s email, helps parents and schools make sense of the changing world we’re raising our kids in. Alongside writing for parents and her Future Smart Parent podcast, she also runs workshops for schools – helping staff and leadership lean into change rather than grip the old bar. If that sounds like a conversation your school community needs, let’s chat.