Comment

Comment by Carole Robertson-Fenn on March 6, 2013 at 11:17am

1. Each school jurisdiction should meet regularly with local employers to see what jobs skills are needed in the local economy. That should be integrated into the curriculum,district assessments, and through career development programs where employer mentors work in schools to tutor and inspire kids and talk about career paths. Students should visit employers on field trips, cooperative education programs where kids can work or volunteer part day and in the summer and get school credit for capturing their experiences. Schools should have parents and community resources come in and speak to the class about various kinds of jobs and career paths in as hands on way as possible.

2. Global education should be brought in in Pre-K-12 with age/grade appropriate activities with across the curriculum, technology to connect schools across the globe, and interaction with the local immigrant community to bring the full richness of world cultures and ideas into the classroom. Foreign language instruction is a key part of the skills building that should start as early as possible.

3. Get kids out of the classroom to learn science, apply math, study history in the community, solve problems by volunteering, and see how others live.

4. Fund study abroad 9th grade forward linked to foreign language,curricular, or special project studies and hopefully in partnership with a project team from another school in another part of the world so that kids and teachers learn to work across multi-cultural differences  to work on teams to solve problems and resolve conflicts.

5. Character building,ethics, debate, good manners, good citizenship, and getting along with others is key.

Carole Robertson-Fenn

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Comment by Rowland Baker on October 27, 2008 at 10:05pm

I really agree. How can we spread the word? We have students in our schools right now who are not being engaged or learning skills they will need in 2020. Do we need to paint our faces and go throw tea off our ships to get this revolution under way?