In the short clip below Jack Ma addresses a question about being a teacher and the future of education.

… Education is facing a major challenge today – if we do not change the way we teach, we may be in trouble thirty years from now. The current education system is based on knowledge acquisition, but this isn’t enough to prepare our children to compete with machines that are smarter. We need to teach something that is uniquely human, something that a machine can never catch up with. The key skills that we need to teach are not just based on knowledge, but on values such as belief, independent thinking, teamwork, and care for others. These are the soft skills that are often neglected in the traditional education system. In order to foster these skills, we need to incorporate activities that are different from what machines can do. This is why we should teach kids sports, music, painting, and art – things that focus on human creativity and expression. In summary, if we want to prepare our children for the future, we need to move away from a knowledge-based education system and focus on developing the soft skills that are uniquely human. By incorporating activities that machines cannot replicate, we can help our children develop skills that will allow them to thrive in a world where machines are becoming increasingly prevalent.