The Lasting Characteristics of Crisis

If you reflect on the past several decades, every decade has provided either a national or global crisis. There was 9/11 in 2001, followed by the global economic crisis in 2008, and SARS following closely afterward. Each crisis has served as a reset button, where new cultural norms and consumer behaviors are born.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the lasting characteristics of crisis and how it changes our culture and the education industry. I have been reflecting on what history teaches us about these inflection points and how they serve to reshape our colleges and schools, our consumer expectations and demands, and how we move forward in the future.

The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to online and remote learning. Schools and colleges will not be able to go back to a time where all learning was placed-based. Our current global health and economic crisis will certainly change things for the future.

I recorded this video this morning to offer some thoughts that I hope you will find useful as you start thinking about the future of education in this new normal.