The Workplace

What your child needs to know to succeed in today's world? And what can you do to help the school and home?

The world is changing a remarkable pace. Twenty-five years, most young people who have mastered the 3Rs of reading, writing and arithmetic, and had graduated from school was likely secondary to secure and retain decent work. Not today. In search of my new book, I realized that there are seven "survival skills" to all young people must master to succeed in today's world. The skills needed for career, college, and citizenship have converged. Students leaving school without them are much less likely to get a good job, college, or being active and turned in our democratic society.

All children, new skills

After seven survival skills, as described by some of the people I interviewed:

Critical thinking and problem solving
"The idea that senior executives of a company has all the answers and can solve problems themselves have completely disappeared the way … The person is close to work must have great analytical skills. You must be rigorous: to test his hypothesis, do not take things at face value, do not go with preconceived ideas you are trying to prove. "
– Ellen Kumati, consultant to Fortune 200 companies

Collaboration among the networks and the influence Leaders
"The biggest problem we have in society as a whole is to find people who exercise leadership at all levels… Our motto is to take you for influence rather than authority. "
Vice President Mark Chandler – President Director and General Counsel of Cisco

The agility and adaptability
"I'm here for four years, and we have reorganized each year due to fundamental changes in the company. . . I can guarantee that the work to hire someone to do willingness to change or may not exist in the future, so that is why adaptability and learning ability are more important than technical skills. "
Clay Parker – President of Product Management Division of BOC Edwards Chemical

Initiative and enterprise
"For our staff production and craft workers per hour, we need independent people. . . they can find some very creative solutions to difficult problems, difficult. "
Mark Maddox – human resources manager in the North American Unilever Foods

Written oral communication
"People are more skills lack is communication skills: written and oral presentations. It's a big problem for us. "
– Annmarie Neal, vice president of Cisco talent management Systems

Access and analyze information
"There is so much information available, it is almost too much, and if people are not prepared to handle information effectively, almost frozen in their efforts. "
– Mike Summers, vice president of Global Talent Management at Dell

Curiosity and imagination
"Our old idea is that the work is defined by employers and employees should do what the employer wants… But really, come with an interpretation that you like – add something personal – a creative element. "
– Michael Jung, a senior consultant with McKinsey and Company

New learning and the role of parents in the community

The problem we face as parents is, what are the skills that are taught and tested – even in our "good" suburban schools. In America today, I discovered there is a single program in most of our schools: "Test Prep." What is taught is what is tested. And because nearly all students to take tests – tests the state of No Child Left Behind Advanced Advanced Placement – require much memorization and recall of facts, what are the skills taught in most classrooms. Consequently, one of two students entering the university will not never end a diploma, and employers report that young people today are poorly prepared labor market of the 21st century.

The potential impact on teachers or the school or district may be limited, a single person. I think parents and community members involved must work together to become effective advocates for teaching and evaluation of the most important knowledge.

In the last chapter of my book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why, even our best schools do not teach the new survival skills our children need – and we can do about it, I suggest that parents and community members must first understand some of the ways the world has changed and how schools should prepare our students for success so different. Book groups, PTA meetings, and discussions in our churches and synagogues are also opportunities for the kind of adult education we must be willing to ask the school board members, educators and policy questions such as:

• What do you think are the skills most important of our upper school graduates need to succeed today?
• How to teach and assess these skills?
• How to measure the success of our schools – by testing or by the number of students who enter college and succeed, and the way students are well prepared for the job? Have you talked to employers and recent graduates of our schools to see if our graduate students acquire the skills need?

New ways to support our children at home

Many business leaders and educators worry "this lack of generation work ethic. "However, I have come to understand that generating" net "is not discouraged, but motivated very differently. Growth connected to the Internet because most teens today are trying to connect with others and learn by discovery. They are accustomed to multitasking in a multimedia world so find more work in schools to be useless and annoying. But, as parents, we worry about our future children, causing them to succeed in school. We are concerned their qualifications and whether to engage in a "good" college. We urge you to do more "good" for enrollment in college, and we hope to be a lucrative career one day.

All these concerns are understandable, but said the young adults interviewed – when I asked What advice would you give parents – that much of this concern of parents and pressure-cons is actually productive.

Andrew Bruck, a graduate of Princeton and currently enrolled at Stanford University Law School told me that "parents must meet the extraordinary ability of students. Our generation wants to do things. It is important to encourage creativity in children. There is much pressure to succeed and to go to a school mark. It is not necessary for parents to stress hair. "

A young woman in a focus group I conducted in a school in New England agreed, saying: "Parents should help children in their dreams – Even if I want to be an artist. "Another in the group adds:" Parents should not worry so much about how their children are in school. They should know more about what their extracurricular interests. Bruck secondary school experience certainly confirms the importance of extracurricular activities in the lives of students. He said he learned more about writing and time management and leadership experience as editor of her school newspaper that his any of his classes.

Mate Kulick, a Cornell graduate who now Google had perhaps the best advice for parents when he said: "Many of my friends never had a good idea of what they liked or wanted to do because their parents, said "you'll be a doctor or … And that does not mean that their children do more homework or always ask what year they were granted. Parents should know what your children like. . . My parents motivated me to do it right – Do not have one, but to give my best. They trusted me. "

As an attorney in your community for 21st century education and learning, and rely on their children as they explore their interests. Easy to say but hard to do. As parents, we also must continue to develop our experience in survival techniques in September – and to be role models for our children – as we grow and learn together.

© 2008 Tony Wagner
About the Author

Tony Wagner is the co director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most recent book, The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach The New Survival Skills Our Kids Need — And What We Can Do About It, has just been published by Basic Books. Tony can be reached through his website: www.schoolchange.org

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