In her excellent blog post on CommonCore.org (http://blog.commoncore.org/2009/07/06/the-partnership-for-19th-century-skills/), Dr. Diane Revitch suggests that schools should be focusing on what she terms 19th century skills and other teachers call human skills. This list does not negate the need to teach core curriculum and what educators are now calling 21st skills - life skills, communications and more (see 21st Century Skills). She has proposed a Partnership for 19th Century Skills. This partnership will advocate for such skills, values, and understandings as:
The love of learning
The pursuit of knowledge
The ability to think for oneself (individualism)
The ability to work alone (initiative)
The ability to stand alone against the crowd (courage)
The ability to work persistently at a difficult task until it is finished (industriousness) (self-discipline)
The ability to think through the consequences of one’s actions on others (respect for others)
The ability to consider the consequences of one’s actions on one’s well-being (self-respect)
The recognition of higher ends than self-interest (honour)
The ability to comport oneself appropriately in all situations (dignity)
The recognition that civilized society requires certain kinds of behaviour by individuals and groups (good manners) (civility)
The ability to believe in principles larger than one’s own self-interest (idealism)
The willingness to ask questions when puzzled (curiosity)
The readiness to dream about other worlds, other ways of doing things (imagination)
The ability to believe that one can improve one’s life and the lives of others (optimism)
The ability to speak well and write grammatically, using standard English (communication)
Dr. Ravitch has given me permission via e-mail to share these skills with teachers at my school.
Shayne Train, Education, Educational Technology, Computer Literacy, Web Tools