Before visiting the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website for my class this week, I had some questions as to why they exist. Is the partnership necessary? Who is supporting it and why? I had never heard of it until this class. Should I have heard of it? What was I missing?
After reading their mission statement, I had a feeling that they might be onto something positive that might lead education in the right direction. As Thomas Friedman, wrote in his New York Times article, "The World is Flat After All," globalization 3.0 is shrinking the world from size small to size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time. Our students need to be prepared to compete with a global talent pool in order to get a job or get accepted into a great university. At the heart of this issue lie these 21st century skills.
At first. the companies that are on board, supporting this movement, and the number of states that have initiatives to reach its goals, surprised me. Only 10 states, 20% of the states feel that there is a pressing need to prepare our students for the future global and technologically driven workplace. I was very glad to see that New Jersey was one of the states with an initiative. Taking into consideration that 21st century skills will help produce technologically literate students/citizens that can contribute and lead these very same companies into the future, it made sense in the world.
The only concern that I have is with the partnership is its support of NCLB as is. I really do not agree with the current form of NCLB. I guess that NCLB is not going away anytime soon, so supporting it is the only thing that they can do.
The implications of these 21st century skills in my classroom are numerous. My students need to be prepared, if they are going to be productive contributing citizens in this global society. All types of media bombard them at every turn. They need to be able to evaluate critically all this information. I must stay on top of all these new technologies if I am going to be able to help them. If they are not prepared to do their best because I have not prepared myself, then I have failed them. Our students and this country need, our educational system to change, to meet the demands of the global workplace.
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2 comments:
I was under the impression that they were referring to how they labeled the "core" classes- which was as NCLB labels them, not that the partnership supports NCLB. (although, perhaps you interpreted just the opposite)
I do like your positive attitude and mindset about 21st century skills, and I agree that we need to prepare them for the future!
Thanks for the different look at things. I had not seen it that way. The idea of supporting "core classes" is definitely a positive thing. I guess I am just a little beat down by all the testing that has resulted from NCLB.
Again thanks for sharing another perspective.
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