Reading Club #2 - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century A visionary investigation into today’s issues as we move into the future02

Elisa, the third presenter, took us on a journey about truth. She first asked the audience to ponder the meaning of justice. Then, she drew special attention to the fact that justice has fluidity. At different times, different issues arise and the law from a century ago might not be applicable to today’s concept of justice. On top of that, in this complex world, many feel-good theories tend to be created like morality of intentions which focus on the intention of the action rather than the effects it brings on other people. Plus, when it comes to justice, there are far too many factors to consider such as uncertainty, controversies and lies. Elisa also proposed her own set of steps on how to avoid being manipulated from seeing the real truth which included admitting to being ignorant, never settle for group thinking and create new trains of thoughts independently. 

The last presenter, Sarah enlightened us on Harari’s view of today’s education and ways to prepare
ourselves and our children for a world that has unprecedented transformations and radical uncertainties. Harari wrote that schools of today focus too much on providing students a set of predetermined skills and by 2050, AI might already be better than humans and these predetermined skills could be irrelevant. Pedagogical experts advise schools to switch to teaching the 4c’s, which are critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity and Harari supported this claim as he thinks it will help students to have the ability to deal with change, learn new things and preserve their mental balance. One of the key takeaways presented in this chapter by Sarah is that no matter what age we are in, we have to constantly reinvent ourselves because to survive in such a world, we have to have mental flexibility and preserve emotional balance.

After the four presenters presented their views, three senior three students volunteered to share with the audience about their thoughts after reading the book and they were Chong Zhi Yi, Goh Shu Hang and Phua Xin Ann, touching on various issues from biotech, infotech, neurolink to creativity in AI. Zhi Yi also shared with us a few phrases which she found inspiring from the book, “I think all of us feel very relatable to some phrases written in the book as with today’s technology advancement, we might easily become the slaves of the internet. So, these phrases remind me to constantly strike a balance and avoid being obsessed with technology.” Other than students, Miss Shyne from ELC commented that the book enlightens her in some ways and pushed her to do a lot of research and thinking though she felt the writer could have offered more insights. Additionally, Madam Boo expressed that we, as the ordinary people often head straight to social media for information without verification and this could easily put us on the losing end. She also pointed out that she really enjoyed
the writer’s humorous style of writing and it brought her laughter while reading the book. 

The reading book club#2 ended after one hour and twenty minutes of intense intellectual sharing among the students and teachers. Madam Boo thanked all the participants for taking part in this insightful event.