Lately, there's a question weighing on every parent's mind. How do we prepare our children for a future that feels so uncertain?
The truth is, children starting kindergarten this year will graduate into a job market that doesn't exist yet. With the rapid unfolding of new technologies, we don’t know what that world will look like. What we do know is that the skills that will matter most are the ones a machine can’t replicate.
For a long time, education has focused heavily on STEM. Schools cut humanities programs and doubled down on subjects deemed “practical.” History and literature became electives and philosophy nearly disappeared. The subjects that teach children how to think were usurped by the subjects that give them a formula to follow.
But now AI is becoming skilled at STEM work—coding, drafting contracts, reading x-rays, writing reports—and becoming more capable by the day.
What AI can't do is think deeply about human nature, weigh an ethical dilemma, or develop the kind of moral imagination that comes from years of reading about real people facing impossible choices and overcoming immense challenges. It can generate answers, but it can't truly discern. And it is exactly this kind of discernment that the humanities nurture.
At BFB, this has been and will always be the heart of what we do: helping parents raise people who think creatively and critically, who are guided by values they can defend, who can ask good questions, and who act with conviction. In a world increasingly shaped by machines, these deeply human abilities will matter more than ever.
It's why we've never treated the humanities as supplemental. In our view, they aren't extra. They are the heart of a holistic education.