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SUMMARY

Today’s conversation with Lisa Nehring explores the concept of the fourth industrial revolution and its implications for homeschooling. Christy-Faith and Lisa discuss the rapid changes in technology and the job market, emphasizing the need for adaptable skills and critical thinking. The ladies higlight importance of literacy, self-learning, soft skills, and emotional intelligence. They also touch on the five emerging economies and offer practical advice for homeschooling parents to adapt their teaching methods and curriculum. 

TAKE-AWAYS

• The fourth industrial revolution is characterized by the merging of technology and humanity, blurring the lines between physical, biological, and digital spheres.
• Children are likely to have multiple jobs in different industries throughout their lives, and many of the jobs that will exist in the future do not exist yet.
• To prepare children for the future, focus on developing critical thinking skills, promoting literacy, fostering self-learning, and cultivating soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and creativity.
• Emotional intelligence is also crucial, as it helps children navigate the global gig economy and work effectively with people from diverse backgrounds.
• Homeschooling parents can adapt their teaching methods by incorporating literature-based curriculum, engaging in Socratic discussions, and creating space for open and challenging conversations with their children

ABOUT TODAY’S GUEST

Lisa Nehring  is the owner of  True North Homeschool Academy, a 2nd -12th grade full service on-line Academy, as well as  “Its Not that Hard to Homeschool” and Blue Collar Homeschool, providing books, tools and online community for families that choose to homeschool.

TRANSCRIPT

Christy Faith (00:00.078)
Our kids are probably going to have between 11 and 13 jobs over the course of their lifetime. They might be different jobs within completely different sectors. Those kids are going to change industries probably more than once or twice. 85% of the jobs that are expected to exist in 2030, don't exist right now.

Welcome to the Christy Faith Show, where we share game -changing ideas with intentional parents like you. I'm your host, Christy Faith.

experienced educational advisor and homeschool enthusiast. Together, we'll explore ways to enrich and transform both your life and the lives of your children. I am so excited to have our guest here today on the Christie Faith Show to talk about the fourth industrial revolution. You might be thinking, what on earth is this? We'll saddle up because you will be so excited about what Lisa Nehring has to share today.

Lisa Nehring has one husband, two graduate degrees, five kids, and a black belt in homeschooling. She wrote a master's thesis on why parents homeschool and is a 30 year veteran of homeschooling. Lisa is passionate about equipping parents with the tools they need. And she really truly is. She cares about families so much to guide their families true north. Thank you so much for being here today, Lisa. I would love just to.

Have you introduced yourself to the audience here? Who are you? How did you start homeschooling and what do you do in the homeschooling space? Yeah, thanks. I'm so glad to be here. So thanks for having me. We started homeschooling in 1991 in Southern California. And we in Southern California at that time, you didn't have to register your kids to homeschool until they were seven. And we knew my husband was in graduate school. We knew that we would be leaving in a couple of years. So we started.

looking at public schools in the area. And there was just one problem after another from academics to social issues. And so we decided to home school for a couple of years and my husband got a military internship and we knew we were gonna move a couple of times in the few years. And then we just kept adding kids and started really loving the lifestyle. And we've just continued and had more kids and graduated them all. So that's how it went.

Christy Faith (02:23.246)
How many total years have you, all of them are grown now, right? Do you have any at home still? Well, my 21 year old is kind of like in the bounce back mode where she goes to college, you know what I mean? But yeah, they're all graduated from homeschool. They're ages 21 to 38 at this point. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So how many total years have you homeschooled? We're talking to, you really do have the black belt. We homeschooled for 30 years. Wow. That's incredible. I love asking.

the generation before us. Did you feel like you had to hide your kids before 3 PM? Cause I have heard this from people. We did. We are homeschool book club leader. She'd actually gone to jail for homeschooling in Southern California for truancy. And so we did, I mean, we did park days and we went to the beach and stuff. Southern California is like out outdoor paradise, right? So we did all those kinds of things, but we were pretty aware. We.

filled out all the forms and did all the things and dotted the I's because it was, we did know people who had gone to jail. That's incredible. Yes. And that's something I'm really passionate. In fact, that's another reason why I'm so glad to have you on today. One of the goals of my podcast is to introduce this newer generation to all of you ladies that are a generation before us, because I feel like nowadays our biggest worry is how am I going to socialize the kids and what curriculum do I buy?

And a decade ago, the worry was, am I going to go to jail? And we have these freedoms that because of you amazing women who stood firm to reclaim your kids' hearts and minds. And I think it's important to always be telling that story because people don't realize that homeschooling has only been legal since the 1990s. It's not a secure thing. They are trying to regulate us all of the time.

We have watchdogs in every state who are down at the capitals representing homeschooling and they are, it's a legitimate fight. So I'm, thank you. Thank you that we, that our biggest worry is what curriculum to buy because of amazing women like you. I.

Christy Faith (04:36.781)
I should get to the topic of the show, but I could talk to you for hours. We actually know each other away from the podcast. Lisa and I have known each other for a couple of years now, and I've met that beautiful 21 year old daughter. We hung out at one of the conventions. She's absolutely lovely. I want to ask you, because this is going to be such an amazing topic on today's podcast. What is this fourth industrial revolution?

Well, first I want you to define it and then we'll get into why it's relevant and why homeschooling kids really, we have the edge here, which I think is, yes. So, but first we need to establish what are we even talking about when we talk about the fourth industrial revolution? Yeah. So there's been three already and I'm just going to very quickly go over them to give some context. They all, every industrial revolution has to do with a change in transportation or communication or usually both.

But the first one was in the late 1760s to 1800s, and it was really the steam engine. It changed how we traveled. It allowed us to go across the United States quickly, all those kind of things. And then the late 1800s, this is the one I learned about in eighth grade, is the Industrial Revolution. It was the 1890s to 1910. I never knew there were four. But this had to do with steel and mass production of things, Ford and all that kind of stuff.

And then in the 1950s, superconductors and computers really changed really how we did computation. And then the fourth industrial revolution, which is what we're in now, a lot of people say it's like part B of the third industrial revolution. This is where tech is merging with humanity. And so it is really the blurring of the lines between physical, biological and digital spheres. And a lot of people are really concerned about that. I mean, I am too. There's...

There's a lot of things that are happening very, very quickly in tech. We're in what's called an age of disruption. So most industrial revolutions last like, you know, like 10 to 30, 40 years, but we're in this time right now where the tech is speeding up so very quickly and the innovation is just like logarithmically changing that a lot of futurists are saying we're just in a time of disruption. So it's not going to be like a 10 or 20 year.

Christy Faith (06:52.685)
It's just going to be this age of disruption now that our kids, we are preparing our kids to live and work in.

That was a lot. Yeah. No. And this is so amazing because I have said in the past that the traditional school system, the public school system, even the private schools in our country and across the globe are preparing kids for a world that literally doesn't even exist anymore. It's totally irrelevant. And so the question we need to ask ourselves, which I'm so excited, is when we're looking at this,

age of disruption and not even being able to fathom what jobs our kids might even have 10 years from now. Have great thinkers or you, you're a great thinker. Have the people, the smart ones here, figured out what specific skills our kiddos need to succeed in this? It is so rapid. You're right. It is. It is really rapid. Well, I want to throw out a couple stats first.

Our kids are probably going to have between 11 and 13 jobs over the course of their lifetime. One, people are living longer and they are able to work to an older age because of medicine and technology and those kind of things. But the other thing too, they might be different jobs within completely different sectors. So it might not just be a different, like you switch jobs in your industry, those kids are going to change industries probably more than once or twice. Really? That's something to really take into account. Secondly,

85 % of the jobs that are expected to exist in 2030, six years from now, don't exist right now. 80 %? 85%. 85 %? That is the rate of tech growth right now. Like, I'm not even kidding. We're seeing 3D printed spleens, well, livers, I think, being transplanted into people, robotic arms. I mean, there really is a blurring between tech and...

Christy Faith (08:53.293)
and humanity, the biological and the digital spheres. So things are really rapidly changing. How do we prepare our kids for that? I love this quote from David Ben -Gurion. He was the first prime minister of Israel. And he said, it's not enough to be up to today. We have to be up to tomorrow. And a lot of us as parents, I had kids in my twenties, thirties and forties. So my younger kids have an old mom. And if I was getting them ready to, to launch as a young adult, the way I did,

That was 40 years ago. That's two generations ago. But all you younger moms out there who are getting your kids ready to launch, you graduated 20 years ago. That's a generation ago. And that world is literally over. 2020 happened. We're now in the fourth industrial revolution and jobs that we got prepared for literally don't exist anymore. I asked this in the live workshops I do, when's the last time anybody used a cart, right? And, and literally nobody knows what that is. It's the people who made the wheels for the buggies, the horse and.

and buggy buggies. Well, we don't, right? Because during the second industrial revolution, the Ford company took over the wagon industry, like literally almost overnight. And that's the world that we live in right now. So to prepare kids for specific jobs is a little iffy. There's some things that we can do to really help our kids get ready for this world that is going to continue to be disruptive. And the first one is just focus on literacy.

Which sounds so basic, right? But there are a lot of functionally literate people. That means that they function at like a fifth grade level. That's not enough. We need to, we, people who are truly literate can critically think, they can analyze, they can synthesize, they can throw out bad information. They know where good information is. There's a lot of critical thinking that goes into true literacy. And we need to make sure that our kids are language literate and numeric literate. That means they see stats. They don't necessarily go,

my gosh, that's so true. They look at how those stats were created and they really understand numbers and language. The second thing I think is so super important is we have to train our kids to be autodidact. And what that means is that they're self learners. A lot of people are doing passive education right now, especially since 2020, where you sit your kids in front of a video and they're just watching a video or in my opinion, maybe even worse, I'm not sure if it is or a cartoon.

Christy Faith (11:20.621)
And some of these programs are fourth through 12th grade, and then they just fill in the blank. That is not active learning. It's not really good for our kids. They need to be looking at more than pixels and talking to actual humans.

and those kinds of things. Before we continue, I want to share with you a program that has been a game changer for our family. At our learning center, we instructed and helped kids through pretty much every program on the market. So we know firsthand just how important a solid math foundation is for our kids' futures. Finding the right homeschool math curriculum that didn't compromise academic excellence, but also didn't put me and my kids through the wringer was a challenge.

Until one day, I found CTC Math. You guys, the rest was history. First off, it's a mastery -based program, which means your child gets a full grasp of the material. It's also loaded with mixed reviews, ensuring your kids don't forget anything they've learned. The questions are adaptive too, which keeps students confident and progressing at their own pace. But the best part? All the teaching, grading, and testing?

done for you. With CTC math, there is no compromise on excellence. Your child gets a top notch education and you just made your homeschool life easier. Visit CTC math to get your free trial today. Whether you're newer to homeschooling or you've been homeschooling over a decade, the fact is creating a streamlined successful homeschool is hard. The pressure is high and the weight of responsibility often leads to self doubt, second guessing.

and feeling completely overwhelmed with the excessive amounts of opinions and curricula options out there. We love our kids and at the same time, the stakes are high. We don't want to mess this up. So how do we build a homeschool that our kids will thank us for when they're adults and one that you have a hundred percent confidence in? The first step to pulling all of that off is joining Thrive Homeschool Community. Thrive Homeschool Community is where you learn the eight step homeschool success framework.

Christy Faith (13:27.629)
to build an undeniably successful homeschool. Each year and each kid presents us with uncharted territory. But when you have a good plan, the right plan, you can rest in the security and confidence that you are doing a great job. The path is easy. Join Thrive, say a quick hello to your new friends, start the eight step homeschool success framework, and kiss anxiety goodbye.

It's risk free, no contracts. You can cancel anytime, no questions asked. Go to Christy -faith .com. That's C -H -R -I -S -T -Y -F -A -I -T -H .com. Enter promo code podcast for $10 off your first month. See you inside. Right. They need Socratic discussion. They need to be challenged. They need all of that. I agree wholeheartedly. I mean, it has its place.

But I never advise mamas to just sign up for one of these online, you know, all in one. Yeah. Where the kids staring at a screen clicking a mouse all day. Well, one, I feel like she's missing out on. my gosh. Right. Right. It's like they're home now. Let's just savor it. Let's light a candle, pour some tea and read out loud. And it makes me sad. And it's it's often how a lot of mamas, they don't know what.

else to this is an interesting topic. They feel the pull to homeschool but because they aren't de schooled yet, they don't know what else to do. And so that is something I'm really passionate about is let's move you faster to this. To this time where you can curate this amazing childhood for your child and this family culture. Wow, that's mind blowing. And the literacy piece as well is

So, so true because you can't read something advanced like my son right now. He is reading a direct translation of the Aeneid for example. You can't when you are challenging yourself when you have to slow down and read every sentence, the amount of skills just involved in that deciphering the language and all of that is so valuable. And that's almost lost nowadays with the type of the way our kids are presented. It reminds me of.

Christy Faith (15:42.925)
early in my adulthood of academia, I remember reading Neil Postman's, Abusing Ourselves to Death. Yeah, that's a great book if anybody ever is. Yeah, he's no longer with us, but that book will stand forever. Okay, what's the third thing? I'm dying to hear all this. This is fabulous. I would say soft skills. You're hired for your hard skills and fired for your soft skills. And hard skills are those things that are easily definable and measurable. Like I speak German. I don't, but you know, if you say I'm fluent.

Soft skills are like, I'm a good communicator. Well, so is it. So what does great mean? And what is, what are you doing with that communication? They're a little bit more difficult to define, but they're super important, especially as our kids go from job to job, because they're going to live and work in a global gig economy, which means that most days of working for one company for 35 years, that's over. They're going to have to market themselves, close the sale, maybe write invoices. They're going to know how to sell.

and how to persuade. The number one thing that employees want from new hires is how to sell. Can they sell by written word and can they verbally sell a product or service or whatever? So, spot skills are super, super important, more so than ever, I would say. I mean, they always have been, but especially with Zoom and, I mean, we already live in a global world, right? Like I was on Zoom a couple of weeks ago with somebody from Egypt, Mexico.

all over the United States and Canada. And that's what our kids are gonna be doing. So having those soft skills, the top four, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. As homeschoolers, we're poised to really do those well. And we do those with things like what you said, Socratic discussions when you're reading a book. And if you don't know what those words mean, it means opening the book and talking about it and having the communications with each other.

And I mean, I try to really encourage parents, like, you don't have to know all the fancy words. You don't know how to know how to do it all or know all the content. Just learn with your kids. That is so very valuable. That one -on -one relationship that just covers a lot of other stuff. So it really does. Yeah. And then the last thing is emotional intelligence. And you know, a lot of emotional intelligence is timing.

Christy Faith (18:05.197)
when to say the thing, when to not say the thing, self -regulation, all that kind of thing. But our kids are gonna need to know it and that goes in with soft skills, obviously. They're gonna need to know those kind of things. Again, they're gonna be competing in the global market, which means they're gonna be working with people from third world countries with master's degrees who are happy to make eight bucks an hour. So things like hard work and adaptability, flexibility, all those kind of things, it's all gonna matter.

The show will resume in just a minute, but first I want to share with you an incredible resource that is totally free to homeschooling families everywhere. Have you ever felt like you were on trial for your homeschooling choice when visiting a doctor or another service provider? It's unsettling, especially when someone misinformed has the power to threaten your family. Unfortunately, we have heard countless stories of parents who have felt trapped in offices and met with suspicion rather than support.

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A directory 100 % free to homeschooling families connecting you with homeschool friendly service providers who promise to support you in your homeschooling choice. We want every homeschooler in America to know about and be using this list. So here's how to make Christie Faith's List a household name. One, tell all your friends about it. Let's show the market just how powerful the homeschool movement is. Number two,

check Christie Face List website before stepping foot into any service provider's office to make sure they are on there. And number three, if your favorite service provider isn't on the list, make sure to refer them. There's a button on the homepage of the website. It takes only 30 seconds and that way we can send them a lovely invite. If you're listening and you are a homeschool friendly professional, we want you on the list.

Christy Faith (20:10.189)
We're eager to connect homeschooling families with you, shout your name from the rooftops, and bring you tons and tons of business. We have plans for every type of business, both small, local, nationwide, and worldwide. Check out ChristyFacelist .com today. Hi, mama. If you like my social media content and my show, I'm pretty sure you will love my book, Homeschool Rising, Shattering Myths,

finding courage and opting out of the school system. My book is for homeschool parents, both veteran and new, and the perfect book to hand any homeschool skeptics in your life so they can better understand why you've chosen this amazing lifestyle. This book will challenge you.

empower you, encourage you, and give you solid, mindful answers to all those questions you get about your homeschooling choice. Grab your copy and maybe an extra one for your mother -in -law today. Homeschool Rising is available wherever books are sold. Yes, that reminds me of, I don't know if you've seen those videos on social media, but they crack me up. They talk about the personality hire. Have you seen those videos at all? No. Where someone basically...

They do a skit where they walk into the room and they label the person as this is the personality hire. And they're basically the office gel, the office entertainment, the one that can pull strings and get on the phone and get the governor to come right down to the office. And because of these soft skills, the connections, the networking, and basically the joke is that they don't really do anything but that. Yeah.

However, that is actually really important. The other thing that came to mind with soft skills is that while our kids are changing these jobs, they need referrals. They need references. And you're not going to get a good reference if you are a cold personality or struggle in that area. And it's exciting now that there's so much SEL stuff out there. It didn't even exist when I was going through school.

Christy Faith (22:15.373)
I had an extremely intuitive mother, so we would talk about social situations and reading body language and things like that. But that's not a normal topic of conversation, I think, when I was growing up, at least in the 90s, where I do think it is now. And I think that's absolutely fabulous. Yeah. So another thing I want to touch on is the five emerging economies, because I think these are really important to keep an eye on.

doesn't mean that other economies won't exist, but this is where the serious growth is going to happen. And that's an artificial intelligence. I mean, we're seeing that all over the place, right? The internet of things, robotics, 3D printing, and then the empath economy. And the one people might not know what it means is the empath economy. And that just means anything that where you're touching a person emotionally or physically. So chiropractor, physical therapist, counselor, pastor, et cetera.

The one thing with the empath economy is it's very politically loaded right now. So, you know, counselors and pastors, there's a lot of political movement in those fields. So if you have a kid who wants to go into it, just talk to somebody already in the field, because they're changing really quickly. There's a lot of regulation and what does that mean? You know, what does that mean?

Absolutely. If you're enjoying the show and you don't want to miss out on future episodes, hit that like and subscribe button and show us some love with your comments. Those five star reviews really do make a difference. How can homeschooling parents adapt to this, adapt their teaching methods or their curriculum? You know, there isn't a fourth industrial revolution curriculum out there, right? Not yet. Not yet. You're probably working on it, which I hope you are because we'd be signing up for that.

But what can we be doing as homeschooling parents, kind of nuts and bolts here, tangible ways we could change and adapt our existing curriculum or our conversations in our homes to better prepare our kids for this? Yeah, that is a great question. I would say make sure your curriculum really has critical thinking in it. One of the things that I feel like a lot of homeschoolers,

Christy Faith (24:36.109)
don't take into account is that their kids can do more than, than probably we're expecting right now. And there are some curriculums that are just bad. I mean, I hate to say that, but there are the homeschool industry is a billion dollar industry and people want money. It's an easy way to make money. Sometimes as somebody in the industry, not always easy, but the other thing too, I think literature based curriculum is phenomenal. We use sunlight for a long time with memory work.

and making sure you're asking those questions and you're being dialectic about it. Because again, literature based curriculum can be very passive. You might read 80 books in a year, but if you asked your kid who the person, place or thing was and what was the major theme of book seven, they might not even remember it. So slow down, take time, have those conversations with your kids and let them talk back to you. One of the things I have found over the years, you probably found this too, working with kids in person,

they don't often have a place to talk. And especially when they're in middle school and early high school, they want to talk. They want to share their ideas. They want you to laugh at their dumb jokes, even if it's one every time with no punchline. But they do want to wrestle with hard ideas and they have big feelings. And so I think giving space for your kids to talk with you and your husband, like have family meals and put the phone away. Don't put it in the middle of the table.

Cause your kids will trust it, if it rings, you'll answer the phone and ignore them. So put the phones away from the table and really have conversations with your kids and have hard conversations. Talk about politics, talk about religion, talk about the family member who has a completely different lifestyle from you and the fact that you love them and all those kinds of things. Have those hard conversations with your kids and tell them why you're doing what you're doing, how you came to this value system, why you've rejected that value system.

why you're voting this way or why not that way. And give your kids space to have different ideas than you. Most kids, once they hit like middle school, they just are going to argue. It's just developmentally where they're at. So teach them logic, teach them how to argue. Well, they're going to argue anyway. And any of those weird conversations with your kids. But be careful. I have a funny story.

Christy Faith (26:54.925)
We have this in our homeschool, my kids have when they reach a certain age, I mean, we have our required literature reading, but I also have mom required reading where we kind of rotate worldview books, apologetics, business books, things like that. Well, on my list, which is up next is Never Split the Difference. And I have a junior hire. And Scott and I looked at each other and we're like, dare we arm this child?

It's very easy to be really careful with. Yeah, I know. Like maybe, am I mentally up for this? Because anyway, it's basically a how to negotiate book for anyone who's not familiar with this book. And it's like, hmm, do we really want to up these skills right now? Let's stick with how to win friends and influence people. That's a good one. You cannot go wrong with it. Yeah.

Thanks for joining us for part one. We hope you gained some valuable insights. Be sure to catch part two where we're going to continue this great conversation.