Creating Globally Competitive 22nd Century Learners
In the current issue of District Administrator, Alfie Kohn writes that 21st century skills just aren’t good enough any more.
He warns that our adversaries (ie. “people in other countries”) are on to us and we must immediately move on to… 22nd century education.
What does that phrase mean? How can we possibly know what skills will be needed so far in the future? Such challenges from skeptics – the same kind of people who ask annoying questions about other cutting-edge ideas, including “brain-based education” — are to be expected. But if we’re confident enough to describe what education should be like throughout the 21st century – that is, what will be needed over the next 90 years or so — it’s not much of a stretch to reach a few decades beyond that.
He’s kidding (I’m pretty sure).
However, there’s nothing funny about the cliche-ridden approach to our current discussion of school reform that Kohn is skewering.
