Not until the second half of the century will the novelty and environmental purity of domed living lose much of its appeal, and the general population will venture out into the “real world” again, leaving domed cities much less crowded, much more affordable, and much less in demand.
Of course, as always, our greatest hope for the finest possible quality of life in the coming century, and for any chance of postponing or averting the end of days, is a brilliantly educated generation or two who can succeed in the many areas in which we’ve either failed or fallen short.
By approximately 2020, the educational system in the United States will undergo massive structural changes, and not a moment too soon.
Teachers will be well paid, they’ll be subjected to thorough background checks, and they’ll be required to hold degrees in child psychology in addition to their teaching credentials, since children’s educational and emotional needs will be considered to be of equal importance.
Higher salaries for teachers will attract more teachers, and in 2020 there will never be more than fifteen grade-school students per teacher in any classroom.
Elementary school children will study the usual reading, writing, spelling, math, and social studies, as well as nutrition, basic ethics, an art or music course, a foreign language course, and an active, hands-on course in ecology. No child will graduate from sixth grade without knowing how to read and write, and chronic tardiness, absences, or incomplete homework assignments will be considered the fault of the parents, not the children, resulting in a combination of fines and requisite parenting classes.
Middle schools and high schools will involve students linked by laptop to assigned teachers at education centers throughout each state. Teachers and students can instantly access each other with the push of a button, making truancy a breeze to detect and the overseeing of each student’s work far more individualized than it is now. Tests in each subject will be given every three months, locally, administered by “live” graduate students in the teaching curriculum.
As for higher education, every student will have instant cyberspace access to the application process at every college and university around the world, just as every college and university will have the instant cyberspace ability to recruit students from around the world. It will become the norm for college students to attend schools overseas, and as this century progresses it will be higher education that’s the primary force, along with the great coalition of religions we discussed earlier, behind the eventual formation of a true global community.
From 2050 to the End of Days and Beyond
There will be human life on Earth again, millions and millions of years from now, when this planet has had the opportunity to cleanse itself of our presence here. And the rest of that thought is: unless every one of us does everything we can, every single day, to save the earth.
This earth, this home away from Home, is God’s creation, not ours. It was here before we were, and it will outlast us if we don’t get over this arrogant idea that we’re entitled to live here. Sometimes you’d think that we’re all a bunch of teenagers, left unsupervised in the house while our parents are away. Given enough time and freedom, there won’t be a house left worth living in, and, I promise, the same is true of our treatment of this planet.
We need to focus on the biggest possible picture to get a perspective on the facts that will determine our success or failure in the second half of this century, and whether or not it will culminate in the end of our days on Earth. Appearances can be deceiving, after all. For example, from our point of view, it can seem very much as if our planet is the center of the universe, with the sun, moon, stars, and distant galaxies revolving around us. But the truth is, we’re just one of eight planets—many of them much larger than we are—that revolve around the sun; there are countless other suns in the cosmos providing heat, light, and life to their own solar systems; and there are far more solar systems in far more galaxies than our most brilliant astronomers have begun to imagine yet.
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