Although no one, and no teacher, can predict the future with any certainty, people in leadership capacities such as teachers are required to make guesses about the probable future and plan appropriately. Teachers therefore need to plan their curriculum according to the more likely future their students face while at the same time acknowledging that the students have a future. The competent leader cannot plan according to past successes, as if doing so will force the past to remain with him. The most competent leader and manager, in fact, is not even satisfied with thoughts of the future, but is never satisfied, always sure that whatever is being done can be improved.
The teacher will therefore choose and plan curriculum with other teachers and administrators according to the students, who they are, what their probable future is, and what lessons would be most useful for them. This means that the teacher will implement his or her own beliefs upon the student in planning curriculum. If the teacher believes the world faces nuclear war and a nuclear winter, he or she will include elements of survival tactics in the lessons. A teacher that believes the world will increasingly use computers at all levels of society will include computers in all levels of instruction.
Teachers who have more than one student will also have to account for differences in the students they teach and plan the curriculum to accomodate these differences. One of the most important differences, because of the amount it impacts the teacher's job, is what the student likes and how much. A well known discipline system, Preferred Activity Time, uses the universal student liking for free time to coerce student attention and work on educational goals first. If the student does not have some affective interest in the lesson or objective, then the teacher will have a very difficult time bringing the student to the point where he or she participates willingly.
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