Future, education and gender

The first editorial of the neo-Secretary General of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union Fr. Patrick Daly, "Reading history" (click here) opens the April issue of "Europe Infos". Other articles tackle the question of freedom of religion, the Arab spring, solidarity with Africa. In the area of bioethics, nanotechnology and gender theories trigger in-depth reflections that involve also the future of the EU and education. Preparing for an unpredictable future. "The year 2030 is not far away: a child born today will then still be at school", writes Fr Frank Turner, from the Jesuit European Social Centre, who also point out that the mid-term forecasts on the challenges and trends that Europe will be called to address by 2030, such as those presented in the EU’s inter-institutional initiative ESPAS (‘European Strategy and Policy Analysis System Conference) held in Brussels past February 18-19 should be taken into due account. During the initiative, five global trends, and five ‘challenges’ posed directly to Europe, came to the fore. These are: he rise of a global middle class; the emergence of a multipolar world with fewer ‘superstates’; the shift from hegemony of nation states to a ‘polycentric web of hubs of influence’ – such as regions, mega-cities and civil society; the paradoxical likelihood that there will be less poverty but more ‘new poor’; and the greater pressure for, but also greater resistance to, global governance. Each of these carry their own counter-trends. For example: the rapid growth of computer and communications technology leads to free access. But it the possibility of controlling strategic information risks leading to overall control and cyberwars. As the relates to the challenges to Europe, the question is "how, in an increasingly competitive world to assure sufficient prosperity to sustain a social model; how to broaden democratic participation; how to cope with an ageing population; how to promote ‘fairness’; how to provide ‘security’ in the face of both civil violence and international terrorism". Turner points a set of "surprising omissions" such as environmental questions or the nuclear threat. More generally, he goes on, what morality, what ‘spirituality’, might enrich our shared capacity to meet the immense challenges of peace, justice and human development has not been considered so far; "still less addressed the impact on our future of religious thinking". To rethink education. "The education system not only needs to respond to a globalised and pluralistic society but, in order to contribute to competiveness and jobs, it should, also reduce the mismatch of skills between what the private sector asks for and what it can provide", wrote Mattia Tosato, Executive Secretary Don Bosco International. One of the hardest things to teach is how to adapt quickly to new production processes. How can new generations face Jeremy Rifkin’s "third industrial revolution" with an education system based on the second industrial revolution? In a Communication published in November 2012 the European Commission attempted to provide strategic directions, identifying strategic priorities (to think critically, creativity, innovation, the spirit of initiative, the ability to solve problems and to work in teams, languages and IT knowledge) and suggesting a set of priorities, notably vocational training and traineeships. However, while the Commission considers this approach one of the ways to tackle youth unemployment, education must continue having a "humanistic rather than a mere utilitarian vision". Tosato underlines that "delivering the right skills for the economy is complementary and interdependent with educating people on human rights and on their duties to the community".Are we born a woman or do we become so? Referring to two recent legislative texts of the European Union José Ramos-Ascensão, COMECE Secretary underlines the common use of the term ‘gender’, while it does not appear either in the Treaty of Lisbon or in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which only refer to "sex", or to "equality between men and women". Ramos-Ascensão argues that such ambiguities in the use of the term "gender" or "sexual orientation" have been exploited to push forward a radical agendas of LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex). "It is necessary o investigate what is the scope and the correct interpretation of the principle of equality and to clarify what in this context is discriminatory and what is not", to avoid that freedom of though and expression to this regard may be labeled as "homophobia". Accordingly, COMECE’s Group of Bioethics experts started a reflection on this topic that will lay the grounds for a joint document.