Skills and the Educational Village

The best way to help students develop the ten skill sets needed for careers, college and citizenship is for the whole educational village to encourage practice and feedback. Teachers, administrators, parents, employers, friends and relatives can help students see that everything they do provides an opportunity for skill development.

Unfortunately, today’s teenagers see school as their education and everything else as in the moment with little or no educational impact. They have let “their schooling get in the way of their education,” to paraphrase Mark Twain. In school, they tend to treat the material they are supposed to learn as barriers to jump over instead of opportunities to exercise the skills they will need in the future. They tend to think their part-time jobs as only about getting cash. In extra-curricular activities, they tend to want the credit or just have fun without hard and responsible work. In their personal lives, they have difficulty deferring gratification and see things such as their college application process as an annoyance or a game to win rather than as an opportunity to practice many skills like money management, editing and proofing and searching for information that will make themselves successful in the future.

From parents to teachers and employers, the adults in their lives can play a big role just by reminding students that practicing these skills is the path to success. The educational village can model exemplary skills by showing good time management, communicating effectively and treating them as they would expect to be treated.