Okay, so to briefly recap what happened in class, we discussed the different skills required to function properly in the 21st century classroom, in addition to watching a couple of videos on YouTube and Google pertaining to the characteristics of the modern student; fundamentally, we explored the modern student as both a student and a person.
In terms of the 21st century skill sets, I personally believe that the most important is developing interpersonal communication. Sure, we live in a technology dominated world, and, of course, that means it is essential to have technology-related skills for scholastic purposes, such as effectively researching information for a project using the Internet, using word processing programs, etc. I don't think there's any way to logically deny this; however, I think the younger, future generations can easily become absorbed by this. As I pointed out in class, for example, I found that my 18-year old brother and his friends don't engage in conflict the way that me and friends do. When I'm angry at a friend, I would typically do it face-to-face with him or her, because I am probably feeling very strongly about whatever the issue is, and the best way to get that across is by demonstrating it to him or her with inflection and emotion in my voice. This doesn't seem to hold true with my brother's generation; they seem to prefer text message arguments - or email arguments, if it's bad enough. Of course, I would agree that there are a number of ways to display emotion (in this case, anger) through the written word, but can you ever truly replace the tone of someone's voice? Or, better yet, there gestures, actions, and body language? And this is just one example of interpersonal skills that seems to get lost; there are, of course, a slew of other situations where text messages or email don't seem to bring with them the same force of a live, personal conversation. Many years ago, it was believed that the "village" (the neighborhood in which someone lived) would raise the "village" children. This does not seem to hold true anymore; people believe in keeping personal and family matters confined to their household. I don't necessarily believe this to be such a bad thing, but I do believe that this modern mentality, in conjunction with the exponential growth of social technology and social media (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) that American culture is losing focus on people interacting with people. As such, I believe there needs to be a great deal of focus on maintaining such skills through the classroom.
The "student of today" also needs a great deal of focus from educators. According to statistics in the videos, many students appear to be overworked, under-appreciated, unsure of his or herself, and being trained/educated for jobs that either don't exist or they eventually don't want. If we want to have a conversation about the skills required in the 21st century, then we need to discuss the people that are going to be taught - i.e. the students. "Overhauling" the education system in this country may be too much; rather, there needs to be a refocusing. By that, I think we need to focus the attention on the student instead of anything else. Think about this: at one time (I'm not sure if this is still true or not), the No Child Left Behind Act said that the schools that performed the best on the standardized tests - standards, mind you, that are set by our governments, both state and federal - would receive more federal funding than schools that did not. Pardon the language, but how ass-backwards is that? So, the schools who have the most need don't get it? My point here is that our culture, with all its high points, is ready and able to reduce everything to a "numbers game." That may work with some things, but let's not forget - education deals with educating people, and last time I checked, no two people are exactly the same; the current system may work for some, but it most certainly won't work for all. In order to better prepare the "student of today," let's refocus the system on them. Obviously, we won't be able to make an education system that will be flawless, but we can make one that works - well, better.
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