What do we want from our children’s education
Posted on October 27th, 2007 in Education, Fulfilling potential, Leadership |
I am grateful to John Connell for drawing my attention to the results of a recent survey of parents in the US. According to the report
“Eighty-eight percent of voters say they believe that schools can and should incorporate 21st century skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, computer and technology skills, and communication and self-direction skills into their curriculum.”
John wonders what conclusion a similar poll in the UK would come to. http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=555
In the past few years I have had several opportunties to work with young people in schools. I network widely - in person as well as online - and share stories of what I have been doing. I was surprised by the reaction of people when I mentioned that I was coaching high school pupils during business related projects like those of Space Unlimited - http://www.spaceunlimited.org which ranged from “I didn’t know that they did that sort of thing in schools - how interesting” - to - ” Where do they get the money to do that?” - to - ” that’s ridiculous - they should be focusing on reading writing and maths”!
Hmmm.
I recall my own children - when they had to write a “personal statement” as part of their university applications - had no problem counting the exam passes but we had to spend some considerable time teasing out what else they felt they had learned. I have done a similar exercise with several young people now and their end result always surprises - and delights them. There is something very powerful in seeing a page of positive ( and true) comments about you and your abilities - which you have generated yourself.
Employers continually report how hard it is to find young people who are work ready. Exam passes and further educational qualifications are still used as a starting point but can you distinguish between 3 graduates with a first - or school leavers with 3 Highers . Of course it has to be on what else they bring with them. Now wouldn’t it be great if the problem employers had was also that everybody had skills in all methods of communication , problem solving, self reflection, self managed learning, citizenship, collaboration, leading, managing, organising…
Parents need to value these too though!
2 Responses
Jackie, parents who value and model the skills you mention for their children, pass on those abilities. The unfortunate thing is that when parents flounder and they do not possess these skills their children suffer in our schools. The good thing is that people like you are bringing 21st century skills to them in an online format that makes sense in our era of time. I heard a man from a major university say in a lecture that we are preparing students for jobs that do not currently exist right now, but they will in the next five years. So you can see it takes a lot to adapt to that!
Thanks Robyn. It will be fascinating to reflect on what was happening now - in October 2012! Tomorrow’s history today.