If you were to ask any parent what they want for their children's future, most parents would say that they want their children to be happy, successful adults. So, the question must be asked, "How do we know our learners are happy and successful?" and "Are we dedicating time in school to lead learners down a path that will allow them to find happiness and success?"
One might say that being happy is connected to finding what makes you passionate about life and success is usually connected to finding a way to provide a life for yourself and loved ones. School can be a great place to allow learners to find their passion and to discover a pathway that will lead to opportunities to provide a life for themselves. Is the American educational system providing enough opportunities for our learners to find happiness and success in our current and future world?
Our current educational system was designed in the Industrial Age with its goal to teach students a specific set of rote skills. After graduating, students could be hired by a company that would require that very specific set of rote skills and nothing more. Employers paid a reasonable wage for employees to complete jobs that required compliance, memorization, and repetition. School provided the one and only direct pathway to success.
Our current and future workforce is requiring so much more of its employees than ever before. Employers don't need people who necessarily know every fact and formula. Memorization is not a valuable skill anymore. Employers need people who know what to do with facts and formulas. The synthesis of new ideas is worth it weight in gold. A learner's "soft skills" are far more valuable than his or her technical skills. When referring to "soft skills", I am referring to some of the following characteristics that allow a person to find success in any environment:
- effective communication
- emotional intelligence
- critical thinking
- creativity
- innovation
- problem solving
- willingness to learn
- leadership
- conflict resolution
- positive attitude
- collaboration
- self-directed
- persistence
- time management
If the marketplace that will be employing our learners in the future are looking to hire people with skills beyond compliance, memoization, and repetition, shouldn't we be focusing our instruction and learning opportunities to foster the characteristics that they will need in the future? While we follow a set standards that will ensure our learners have a solid academic foundation, I believe it is time that we spend more of our efforts dedicated to enhancing the "soft skills" as listed above.
If learners can practice and adopt these characteristics, then they can learn and do anything in which they set their mind. If a learner masters a set of Math skills but cannot communicate these skills nor collaborate with his or her co-workers to accomplish a task, then the set of Math skills are rendered useless.
So, what kind of people do we want our children to become? I don't think our children will be happy or find success with memorizing facts or performing repetitive tasks. Our learners will have the best chance at being happy and successful when they perfect their "soft skills" and focus on HOW they use information versus how MUCH information they know. It is time to dedicate more of our public school efforts to enriching our learners' positive characteristics.
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