Mad Skills Watch: Friedman Edition

November 24, 2010 by Paul Richlovsky

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have an update about skills that students in a knowledge-based economy need. Thomas Friedman wrote an op-ed column in last Saturday’s New York Times highlighting the importance of skills in the context of improving our nation’s teachers and global education standing. The skills tie-in comes from a reference to Tony Wagner, education expert and author of The Global Achievement Gap:

“There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy:

the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving;

the ability to communicate effectively;

the ability to collaborate.”

Global college attainment standings
Friedman also writes about how America’s young adults only can claim a tie for ninth place on the planet when it comes to college attainment.  The way to improve the rankings, he argues, is to reward teachers for excellence. This involves active recruiting (he cites Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s “national teacher campaign”), training, and support. Other countries ahead of us—Finland, Denmark, Singapore, South Korea—show the ways the U.S. might create and reward sustainable excellence in education.

Final impression
It’s a rousing column that ultimately challenges parents to also take part in the movement to “elevate learning as the most important life skill.”

Amen to that.

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Related reading: As mentioned above, I’ve written plenty about sought-after job skills on this blog. Need more than two posts to be convinced? Also see here, here and here for various independent references.