If you really want to know about the future, don't ask a technologist, a scientist, a physicist. No! Don't ask somebody who's writing code. No, if you want to know what society's going to be like in 20 years, ask a kindergarten teacher.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding societal change through the perspective of educators rather than technical experts.
Clifford Stoll highlights the idea that the future of society is shaped more significantly by the values, knowledge, and emotional intelligence imparted by educators, particularly kindergarten teachers, than by the technological advancements or scientific developments proposed by technologists and scientists. This suggests that the foundational experiences and social interactions fostered in early education play a crucial role in shaping the future culture and behavior of individuals in society.
In practice
In a speech about the future of technology, one might quote this to emphasize the role of education.
Data isn't information. ... Information, unlike data, is useful. While there's a gulf between data and information, there's a wide ocean between information and knowledge. What turns the gears in our brains isn't information, but ideas, inventions, and inspiration. Knowledge-not information-implies understanding. And beyond knowledge lies what we should be seeking: wisdom.
Data is not information, Information is not knowledge, Knowledge is not understanding, Understanding is not wisdom.
What is learned on the athletic field is not forgotten, nor are the lessons of character that are forged there ever lost. Consider the contributions in the field of public life, business, law, medicine, and the military of those who actively participated in athletics.
I would rather have one article a day of this sort; and these ten or twenty lines might readily represent a whole day's hard work in the way of concentrated, intense thinking and revision, polish of style, weighing of words.
The key to education is the experience of beauty.
My parents believed in education and economic security, and I thank them for it. Because I think that's part of what's made my life stable. It was instilled in me. You have to be able to pay your bills. You do not get into debt. And I never have been.
Over 20 million children of conflict are out of school. Education is often forgotten.
[On School Uniforms] Don't these schools do enough damage making all these kids think alike, now they have to make them look alike too? It's not a new idea, either. I first saw it in old newsreels from the 1930s, but it was hard to understand because the narration was in German.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.