“Never memorize something that you can look up.” ― Albert Einstein

Ask yourself: “If my child was one of the last living members of the human race, and he or she would carry the DNA memory that would give birth to a new species, what should that memory contain?”

Perhaps DNA holds the memory of 2+2=4 or the Beatles recorded I want to hold your hand in October of 1963, but I doubt it. I place my memory bets on capacity and qualities, not content as data, information or knowledge. Qualities and capacity are those forces of behavior that define our relationships with others, nature and the universe; selfish greed and altruism, empathy and aggression, holistic appropriateness and inventiveness for profit, for example. When considering the value of parenting and education, rather than passing standardized tests and preparing for a job, we might consider qualities and capacities that will serve humanity in its new dawn, and then see that our child embodies these, just in case. Here are a few suggestions to get started: