The idea of Social Futures is intriguing to me. I had never heard of the term anachronistic institutions, and I agree with the speaker who mentions that it feels safer for teachers, administrators and districts to maintain the same model of how it's always been, aquiring knowledge and testing that new found knowledge. According to Merrium Webster, anachronistic is defined as"a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present." Further, incongruous means basically that the educational institutions are incompatable with the needs of communicating and educating for the future. In the video "No Future Left Behind," the students demand that we prepare them for the future. In my observation, students these days seem to know exactly what they want and how to get there, and there is almost an undertone of their plee to not "dumb down" their education. For example, in my experience with students, many of them from grades 3-5 are certain about what they want to do for a career. One student mentioned that he wants to be a chemist, another a scientist, another a police offericer, and another a veteranarian. They are hyper aware about what is going on in the world, more than we give them credit for.

In my experience as a teacher, I see the obtaining knowledge and testing model as the norm. The speaker mentions that students can be assessed in a variety of ways, such as performance and formative assesments, rather than testing. Formative assessment measures a more holistic view of the student, their opinions, their designs for the future. Math in particular needs to be linked to what and how they will use math in their futures, if not specifically, then to create critical thinking skills. State testing is particulary concerning because because teachers have no autonomy over what is presented on the exam and may not get any feedback from students performance on these tests. We are in the stage now of preparing students for how to take the state exams, called Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, and it measures the data produced by school rather than by specific student outcomes. So we are spending most of the teaching blocks "teaching to the test" and spending a lot of time doing it.

According to Social Futures,  "Social Futures create inclusive communities and bridge the gap of social isolation. We connect people to the support they need when they need it." Learning about why students feel disconnected and isolated prompts the idea that students need to learn about collaboration and cooperative learning, in order to communicate in the changing world.