Title: 21st Century Skills: Why They, Matter, What They Are, and How We Get There
Author: Ken Kay
Ken Kay brings up the issue that many states are facing some serious economic issues in which our countries big employers are restructuring and eliminating jobs and if you add that to the downturn in our economy, we are facing big budget cuts across the board. In a recent study on where American’s work, researchers found that America still produces 21% of the world’s manufactured goods. But the nature of manufacturing has changed. Factories that had once been a source of jobs for unskilled workers is no longer. Today’s manufacturing workers are higher-skilled than those of 40 years ago and are among the most productive workers in the world. They are also among the most innovative (“Office of Parks and Factory Floors : Where Americans Work,” 2012). The majority of Americans work in some kind of service job, which is not unusual if the economy also includes a strong base of production jobs with a strong export margin. These facts are major concerns for our country and brings some serious questions how and what we are educating our next generations.
In this situation, we want to make sure that our young people are receiving the education that will make them valuable additions to universities or the workplace who employers desire to hire, and have the tools to bring our country into the future. To do this, we need to make sure that they are learning the 21st century skills such as; technology, writing, math, science, creativity, critical thinking, and the list goes on. Just as important are “themes” such as global awareness, health, financial, environmental, and civic literacy. If you look down the list of the skills that our schools systems prioritize, how many of them are innovative? How many of them seek to prepare our children to be career ready rather than ready to learn a career when they graduate? Kay believes we are at a tipping point in public education. This is something we need to embrace.
As a society, change is not something we inherently seek after. Individually we might enjoy the notion of change, but may find it hard to anticipate wide-scale change happening. Risks are high when we push for big changes in systems like healthcare, education, and environmentalism. Changes in these systems are broad and far reaching. The futures of our children, our own personal beliefs, and fears are entwined. But the trends in our economy are clear, we cannot continue as is and hope to remain competitive in a global economy where developing nations are improving quickly.
It may seem like an obvious statement, but we as a nation need to agree on what skills are key to success in our joint future. We can want to improve all we want, but nothing will happen if we don’t make a serious to committing to go through the process. We need to commit to come together on agreeing to a plan and do what it takes to prepare our society for the future.
References
Bellanca, J. A., & Brandt, R. S. (2010). 21st century skills: Rethinking how students learn. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Center Forward. (n.d.). Retrieved October 02, 2014, from http://www.center-forward.org/
