We all feel somewhat disoriented as the pace of change in the world around us is accelerating. To get a sense just how things are changing, consider that in the 200 years between 1750 and 1950, you could count on one hand the number of discoveries and inventions that disrupted whole industries or fundamentally changed the way we lived and did things: the steam engine, the telephone, television, the combustion engine, and electricity. But in just the 70 years since then, we have had the internet, the internet of things, mobile communication devices, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality and augmented reality, and Artificial Intelligence and each one of these has been a disruptive force, compelling us to rethink the way we live and work.

A parallel shift that has impacted how we think about work is the increased lifespan that we all enjoy. In 1750, the average life expectancy was 37 years. In 1950, it was 69 years, and today already it is not uncommon to find individuals living into their 90s. But as we live longer, we are going to be on a lifelong track to be continually learning, continuing to retool and reskill ourselves to meet the quickening pace of change in the world around us. In a previous life, one set of skills might have lasted a lifetime; today we need to develop and build on the skills that we have, continually adding to and enlarging our areas of expertise to meet new challenges, and contribute to solving new problems that our previous skills just aren’t sufficient to address.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills will be necessary for all jobs in the future. Nurses must be able to read digital instruments quickly and be able to interpret the results and act on them immediately. Building inspectors use drone technology to ensure the integrity of buildings, and the internet of industrial things is increasingly used to monitor factories and bridges, using a host of sensors and video. Nor are the arts immune from the influence of STEM. From the invention of portable paint tubes which enabled painters to paint outside to silkscreen printing, technology has had a huge impact on the arts. Lasers are fundamental to light shows, and 3D printers and pens are used for artistic expression and to print organs for eventual transplantation.

STEM skills are already necessary to understand how the world works and to solve problems. Consider the mounds of data that are produced daily: financial data, health data, educational data, sales data…the list goes on. But it’s the analysis of all this data in every field that requires a trained eye. Increasingly, those that are successful and competitive will be those that can analyze the data, draw inferences from it and make decisions based on what the data is telling them. Unsurprisingly, data scientist is one of the best-paid, most highly in demand occupations today and one where the demand for talent far outstrips supply.

By 2025, it is estimated that the United States will need to fill 3.5 million STEM jobs, but more than 2 million of them will go unfilled. We just aren’t producing graduates with STEM skills in anything like the numbers we need in order to be competitive. Globally, China produces almost 5 million STEM graduates annually, India almost 3 million, and the United States just 500,000. The other top producers of STEM graduates apart from those top three are Russia, Iran, Indonesia and Japan. Note that apart from the US, all the other countries are in Asia and so we should be concerned about our continued ability to compete competitively in the world.

Our educational system is at the heart of providing our students with the skills that they’ll need to be successful. But is the educational system effectively preparing students for the future that they’ll face. Unfortunately, for the most part, the educational system, both in content and method, is rooted in the past.  Classrooms today don’t look very different than they did a century ago with rows and columns of desks, each student an island unto herself, isolated from all others. Classrooms are over-crowded, with 25 to 45 students in a single class not uncommon. The content is outdated with little opportunity for students to develop skills that will help in solving the problems of the day: statistical thinking, logical thinking, analysis and synthesis of information, application of concepts and prototyping, and many others. These are the skills that are needed, and not being taught.

But what about Special Education? What about those students with social and learning differences? How do they fare in this “brave new world”? The unfortunate news is that in every category you look, in every age group, those with special needs have worse outcomes than their typical peers. They find it harder to get a job and keep it. And when they do find work, it is more often part-time and poorly paid. They find it hard to enroll in a college, two or four year, and they struggle to graduate. In fact, 80% of those on the autism spectrum don’t graduate college in 6 years.

The good news is that students with diverse needs are every bit as capable, often more so, than their typical peers. They have natural strengths that lend themselves well to acquiring the kinds of essential skills that are in huge demand now and will continue to be in the future. They often have superior visual discrimination, pattern recognition, ability to persevere, and mathematical skills. Sometimes they have interests and talents that are unexplored, untapped, yet which are directly relevant to skills which are in great demand in the workplace. Given the pervasive impact of technology in the world, a STEM based education provides the strongest foundation for students of all interests. This is especially true for students with diverse needs as STEM based activities provide endless opportunities for interaction, collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity, skills which are essential for continued success in the modern workplace.

Classes and courses in coding, in electronics, in robotics, engineering and design, data analytics and cybersecurity not only teach our students how to think, to think logically and creatively, but they also develop in them the skills to collaborate effectively on a team, to advocate for a position and point of view, to understand and address contemporary problems, and to leverage their own talents and passions to build expertise and excellence in a field of interest.

If we are to realize our dream of individuals with special needs having all the opportunities that a typical person has, opportunities to flourish in school, in college, and in the workplace, then we have to provide them the tools they’re going to need to be successful in those domains. All that remains is the doing of it.