St. Francis is Ideal for your Student's Future...

Humans are underratedSt. Francis is Ideal for Your Student’s Future . . .

Recently we shared our mission for St. Francis College Preparatory High School, which is to, “inspire students to leadership through a 21st Century education that is founded upon the Catholic faith and tradition.”

We explained that a 21st Century education addresses the technology being used in education today, and the changes in industry as a result of that technology.

Why is it important to address these issues? Because technology is no longer the future, it is the here and now. It is the world our students are going to have to navigate in order to succeed and lead.

The August 1, 2015 issue of Fortune magazine provides several examples: Daimler is testing a self-driving semi-truck; Softbank has developed a robot assistant that moves around your office reading facial expressions, voice tone and body language and responds accordingly; and researchers at UC Berkley are training a robot to identify and cut away cancerous tissue – entirely on its own.

In July 2014 Economist magazine reported over 47% of all jobs will be automated in the next two decades. Given that the No. 1 job for men today is truck driving and the No. 1 job for women is administrative assistant; and given Fortune’s report on the newest trends in technology, it appears the Economist statistics are not far off the mark.

This is why there is such an emphasis on STEM — science-technology-engineering-math – education, and this is why St. Francis recognizes our duty to prepare our students accordingly.

However, St. Francis also recognizes that STEM is not enough. That is why we are committed to a STREAM — science-technology-RELIGION-engineering-ARTS-math – education. This commitment is found in the second half of our mission statement. The 21st Century Education we offer is “founded upon the Catholic faith and tradition.”

We understand that education must be rooted in faith for the service of God and his creation and to put these pieces in place we must teach faith and the humanities as well.

Interestingly, experts watching the trends in technology and industry are beginning to understand this as well. In fact, when commenting on the changes in technology and industry, Oracle group vice president, Meg Bear, said that, “Empathy is the critical 21st Century skill.”

In other words, with all the changes technology is bringing, the most critical skill our students must have is the ability to care for and understand people; and to care for people properly we have to understand the value of people . . . they are made in the image of God.

This is why St. Francis is ideal for your student and his or her future. We understand the need to prepare them for the changes ahead, but more importantly, we understand the need to ground them in Biblical truth.