EduCon 2027Want to Know Who Rules the World in 2056?
In the first five years, a child's brain forms more than one million neural connections every second. The ones that get used stay. The rest get pruned. I was an elementary teacher when my school did intensive professional development on brain-based research. I treated my own kids' childhood like a lesson plan, anchored to science, not guesswork. Portable screens didn't exist. Thirty years later, I get to watch how it played out. Here's what I keep noticing: the conditions that build an AI-ready adult are the same ones that build a toddler who can read a room, hold a conversation, and pay attention to another human being. None of that starts with a screen. All of it starts with us. When I talk with early childhood directors and principals, I hear growing concern about the needs kids bring with them to kindergarten roundup. Those needs follow children through K-12. We're seeing kids who struggle to sit with discomfort, kids with more behavioral challenges, and kids who spent their first years on screens more than any generation before them. PreK is expected to course correct. When it can't, kindergarten inherits the gap, and the cycle starts again. That idea became The First Five: Before Screens, a newsletter building toward a book. Each chapter is anchored to a skill I believe our children will need in a future defined by AI: Talk to Her: conversation and connection Ba Dum Dee Dum: rhythm, attention, and taking turns Chase the Butterfly: curiosity and asking good questions All She Wants to Do is Read: deep, sustained focus Build Me a Rocketship: spatial reasoning and stubborn problem solving Make a Mess: unstructured discovery and creation Running the Wrong Way Around the Bases: gross motor skills, collaboration, and emotional resilience Baking Cookies for Alene and Arthur: compassion and empathy I'll Have What She's Having: making choices and communicating them The Puppet Show: wonder and the ability to focus Shh. They Think I'm Sleeping: boredom and the ability to sit with yourself Finish the Season: follow-through when things get hard My children are two data points. The research behind these skills is built on thousands of children. Here's the question I can't stop asking. Children under two now average about an hour of screen time a day. The World Health Organization recommends zero. If we play that map forward, who is running the world in 2056? Do we end up with world leaders, business owners, doctors, and teachers who can navigate disagreement, adapt when plans fall apart, stay curious, and show compassion? Or are we wiring something else? In this session, let's debate and discuss. Is this the right list? What's missing? What happens to kids who didn't get these five years, and what can school do about it? And what are we doing in classrooms that quietly wears down the very skills we say the world will need?
Conversational Practice
Opening and the thread (12 min). I start with a challenge: are we debating screen time too late? Children under two average about an hour of screens a day. The World Health Organization recommends zero. Play that forward thirty years. Who are the leaders, business owners, doctors, and teachers of 2056? Can they disagree well, adapt, stay curious, and show compassion? I've spent my career putting technology in classrooms, and I'm here to ask us to wait. I share the brain research on why the first five years are a window that never opens again, and the story behind The First Five, with a focus on the AI-proof skills I believe kids will need. Then I ask everyone to think about the young children in their own lives: their kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, neighbors. Chalk Talk (30 min). Twelve chapter skills go on chart paper around the room, plus a thirteenth poster that asks two questions: "What's missing?" and "What would a parent of a 2-year-old need to hear to actually put the phone down?" People move silently between the posters and answer three prompts on each skill: What does this skill look like at 2? At 12? At 22? Then everyone picks a poster, stands with that group, and talks through two more questions: What do we do in school that builds this skill, and what wears it down? What can families and caregivers do in the first five years to lay the foundation? Pushback round (20 min). Four Corners. I read statements like "The kids who spent their first two years on screens will still grow up to be the leaders we need," "School can't make up for the first five years," "Screen-free early childhood is a privilege, not a choice," "Parents already know screens are bad. They need permission, not research," and "This list is missing the most important skill." People move to Agree, Disagree, It Depends, or Wrong Question, and each corner makes its case. I want to be argued with here. I'm writing a book on this, and I'd rather hear the hard questions from this room than from a reviewer. Stop and start (15 min). If we believe these skills matter, what are we willing to change? Each person adds one thing to stop and one thing to start in a shared doc (QR code provided) that stays open after EduCon. Parents, early childhood educators, and K-12 educators each get their own column, so we can see where we agree and where we don't. Close (13 min). A few volunteers read what they added. No summary from me. The room gets the last word. Before leaving, everyone answers a three-question exit ticket about what parents need to hear, and those answers will shape the book.
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