Will Fitzhugh, founder of The Concord Review, has an interesting column in EducationNews.org today. He, like many others, bemoans the fact that so many students are ill-prepared and forced to take remedial college courses.
But he takes the focus off of 21st??Century Skills and instead argues for more focus on 19th??Century Skills like reading, writing and comprehension. He stresses, of course, that he LOVES his Mac, but notes that when he's assembling the Concord Review, "I still have to read and understand each essay, and to proofread eleven papers in each issue twice, line by line, and the computer is no help at all with that."
Later, he writes: "Computers can check your grammar, and take a look at your spelling, but they can't read for you and they can't think for you, and they really cannot take the tasks of academic reading and writing off the shoulders of the students in our schools."
He says those who focus too much on testing/accountability in reading/math, AND those who focus too much on 21st??Century Skills, BOTH tend to miss the boat. "Neither group gives much thought, in my view, to whether any of our high school students have read one complete nonfiction book or written one serious research paper before they are sent off to their college remedial courses."
Check out more of what he has to say here.
By the way, our own Mike Petrilli has plenty to say about 21st??Century Skills too. And, if you're interested in reading more about the topic, visit our friends at Common Core. They hosted a panel discussion on 21st??Century Skills in February.