It’s 2021, and there’s no doubt that we’re living through the midst of major systems upheaval. We’re simultaneously facing ecological systems collapse, an ongoing global pandemic, a weaponized media and government kleptocracies, just to name an obvious few. At the same time, we’ve never been so globally connected, nor experienced such rapid changes in all parts of our life. Humanity is experiencing a vast shift that challenges our fundamental ideas about work, life and play. New technologies, tools and platforms are transforming both the analog and digital worlds, impacting all of our futures…all vocations and occupations…all ecosystems and economies.

At Future Scouts, we believe we need a new set of survival skills to thrive in the wildernesses of the 21st century. Yet these skills often aren’t taught in traditional learning environments or work environments. Further, some can’t be taught in the traditional sense at all, but only learned experientially (like collaboration)! So what are 21st century survival skills, why do we need them and how can we go about learning them?

This is why we’ve taken time to reflect during the pandemic on this revolution in learning and education. We’re excited to start sharing with you the results of that reflection and synthesis.

Now we’re excited to introduce the inaugural edition of “Scouting the Future: the Handbook of 21st Century Survival Skills.”

Our “Scouting the Future” Handbook is designed for learners of all ages. Whether your interests are in learning something new, expressing your talents, shaping a better world, pursuing your passions, building your skill set, or simply living, this scouting handbook can help you access to what you need within yourself to be a successful, self-directed learner.

The Future Scouts Handbook will help you to forge your own alternative learning path, a space that is both active and participatory, with a customized structure that you create that is responsive to your own distinct, emerging needs. Regardless of your current education, it’s vitally important to embody a sense of curiosity and an openness to continually learning and evolving.

In further posts, we’ll share more on the what and the why of lifelong, self-directed learning, and how it can help you live your most fulfilling and meaningful life. This is not a traditional scouting handbook — this one is full of practical concepts, tools, nudges and frames to empower you to have a sense of play and pride in how you create your own unique lifelong learning journey. We hope it supports you to self-direct your learning, imagine your preferred futures, and create new stories about how you want to live.

Along the way throughout the Future Scouts Handbook, we recommend personal readings, videos and tools for further inspiration and practical engagement. You’ll discover guiding principles to alternative learning, and the power, benefits and practice of an experimental mindset. We encourage you to write and record your own stories, experiment and share tips and lessons learned from your own alternative learning journey.

Join us in imagining, creating and forging new lifelong learning stories and experiences. You will have fun. You will have courage and adventure. You will be empowered to make decisions that are the best for you and those you love. It is possible for you to design your own learning path and create your own set of survival skills that will enable you to navigate, persevere and thrive in the 21st century wilderness.

The contents of the Handbook of 21st Century Survival Skills will also be available via the Future Scouts app this fall, available on iPhones to start. We’ll share more over the following weeks and months about how learners, educators and parents can gain access and get involved as founding Future Scouts.

Sign up to get early access to the Future Scouts app and the Handbook of 21st Century Survival Skills (Pandemic Edition): https://futurescouts.cc

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Contact one of our Phyle leaders or contact us through the website, and follow us on the Socials to keep up to date.