What will I be

When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, "What will I be? ..... Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours, to see - Livingston & Evans

COVID is resurgent, but unevenly. Hitting harder in some countries, hurting some people more than others. I am thinking of children, especially those living in places that have mismanaged the epidemic. Their schooling impacted, their parents are more likely to have lost a job, and god forbid, more likely to have lost a home or parent. What fault is it of theirs? 

There appear to be at least two types of countries: one which have miraculously managed to protect both health and the economy (including Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, New Zealand not to mention the mind boggling case of China) and others which have done poorly on both (including India, Brazil, the UK). The case of India is particularly alarming with stories on lack of healthcare infrastructure and the melting away of almost a third of the middle class. 

The places that have managed the pandemic well over the past year seem to have three things in common: limited movement and enforced quarantines, utilized testing and evidence, and ensured masks and social distancing. Importantly they have executed this consistently, relentlessly, and over a long period of time. Having witnessed this first hand in Singapore, one realizes that while some of it may be, a lot of this is not about money or resources. But about being organized. Intensely organized.

Over the years I have had the chance to speak with a lot of parents through my work in education. When asked what we wish for our children we almost universally mention success and happiness. As you go up the socio-economic ladder the order reverses. I would add a third wish to this: To be organized. The capability and discipline to take pains to identify the best possible decisions in a situation and implement them unfailingly; till the goal is achieved or the ill winds seen away. 

We don't emphasize enough in education or upbringing what every physicist knows - that the natural state of this universe is to be overtaken by chaos (or entropy) and that order is rare. Human’s unique ability to create order, as the pandemic clearly reminds us, is unevenly utilized. Only education can change that. While the overarching purpose of education is to realize the potential of every child, children must first grow up to be adults who can bring a better order to their own lives, and just maybe to that of others. Let that be the lesson from this awful pandemic.