The Educated Person in Today's World

According to Wallis and Steptoe in the article, “How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century,” our schools need to prepare students:
- for global citizenship
- to think across disciplines
- to collaborate with people from different cultures
- to have good communication skills
- to have critical thinking skills
- to have technology skills
- to show respect for others and be responsibleI agree that we should prepare our students for global citizenship by exposing them to other cultures and languages. In addition, in order to prepare students to collaborate and work as members of a team, I have seen a trend toward the utilization of more group activities in the classroom. Certainly, good communication skills are a must. They need to be able to communicate orally and in writing, writing e-mails and reports. With the essays on college boards today, many schools have focused on developing better writing skills across the curriculum. Also, with the vast databases of information on the Internet, students need to be able to use critical thinking skills to evaluate the information and determine what information is reliable. They also need to be familiar with the software programs that are commonly utilized today, such as browsers, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software. They need to constantly learn how to use new technologies that will help them communicate and interact with people all over the world. They should become familiar with Web 2.0 technologies and be able to utilize wikis, blogs, videocasts, and podcasts. In the article, the authors mention a high school in Michigan where one of the graduation requirements is for students to take one online course. This is the method they are using to make sure the students are familiar with current technology. Along with all of these new skills, it is very important for schools to reinforce traditional values such as respect for others, responsibility, and honesty.