Going back to school at any level feels great. The smell of wet fallen leaves, the evergreen ivy climbing up the centuries-old student hall, the instructors in their tweed carrying volumes of forgotten lore under their arms as they stroll across campus in a yellow and orange arboreal corridor. …
Wait; that’s not Colorado.
Nonetheless, back-to-school time always thrills me. Not the mindset prevalent in our public schools today where administrators clad in polyester rather than tweed wonder aloud whether or not we taught our kids what they needed for the TCAP but the hope that creative teachers and inspired students will take back education from the educators and practice the skills necessary to survive and thrive in today’s world.
Tony Wagner, the first Innovation Education Fellow at Harvard University, outlines seven skills our graduates need now. Critical thinking and problem solving are first on the list. When we teach the scientific method, we are teaching our kids to be rigorous, a good thing. The first step in this process is to “define the problem.” But we have lots of people who can define the problem. If you want to get ahead, be the solution guy.
Teach a kid to think and he will figure out the multiple-choice questions on the TCAP. It’s not that hard of a test.
We need effective oral and written communicators. Writing is thinking made visible. Once we learn to think correctly, we can write effectively. I sit at my desk and put my thoughts down. A few days later, you pick up the paper and our thoughts do a little dance together. It’s brilliant, it’s a skill, and graduates need it.
Do our students work well together even with the kids who are different from them? You have to be able to. And Wagner says we need to lead by influence rather than authority. You can define character as what you do when no one is looking.
Children love routine, but we have to teach them to be agile and adaptable to keep up with the changing needs of businesses, society and even families.
My grandfather taught me how to take care of his lawn. He would walk me around the property, pointing out things that needed to be done. He finished by telling me that I should be able to look around and know what chores needed to be done without him having to tell me. He was asking me to take initiative.
Bear in mind that an employee who is five-for-five in ideas might not be as valuable as the employee who is four-for-20. The first guy might be playing it safe. Don’t be afraid to fail.
There is so much information out there that leaders claim they see young graduates literally freeze. We need to teach them to avoid the trivial and isolate the significant.
Finally, the list includes curiosity and imagination. In my experience, children are born with a curious and imaginative spirit. What happens?
I guess we as parents and teachers have to ask if we encouraging them to be curious about the world in which they live when we let them watch six hours of (fill in the blank) per day.
Is this teaching my daughter to use her imagination? Or am I leaving her outside in the damp, leaf-covered lawn while the rest of the world sits inside by a large fireplace amid stacks of books, easing into a leather chair lit only by the roaring fire and a small mahogany lamp?
Jeff McAbee (jjmcabee@) lives in Broomfield.
