Sage Advice: The Know-How That Will Serve Kids Best
What is the most critical skill students should master to succeed?
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Turning passion into performance. Too many kids separate their interests from their academics, even if the two have a lot in common. Science class is one thing, and exploring nature in the backyard is another. Separating interests from work is a bad habit that can continue through life if we don't learn to love what we do.
Jason Freeman
Director
Coalition for Science After School
Berkeley, California
The most critical skill students should master is being able to creatively solve problems. Being able to brainstorm, to create new ideas, and to try new ways to solve problems is essential to our future as participants in a global economy.
Linda Hensley
Special education teacher
Chuckey Doak High School
Afton, Tennessee
Besides reading and math computation, everyone needs to know how to solve problems. The most successful people in our society are not always the brightest academically, but they are all able to solve problems. Not the kind of problems that have trains going in opposite directions at different speeds, but the kind that force you to think through a situation and come up with reasonable alternatives that help you accomplish a task or do a job. Problem solvers have critical-thinking skills and are able to assess along the way whether their thought process is reasonable. Problem solvers also think quickly on their feet, because they do not get distracted with extra information. Regardless of career, students need to be able to think through and solve problems to be successful.
Don Cowart
Principal
Hope Highlands School
Cranston, Rhode Island
The most important skill to teach is thinking. The skills needed for tomorrow don't exist today, so we must prepare students to be able to think critically and with a systems-based perspective so that they can quickly learn the skills (both physical and mental) they will need to succeed in their lifetime.
Jacob Walker
Computer instructor
Twin Rivers Unified School District
Sacramento, California
In order to succeed, one must understand what having a positive approach is, and then understand that when one does one's best, one's best will get better.
David Isamu Tamori
Art teacher and wrestling coach
Oroville High School
Oroville, California
Listening and interpersonal relationships are critical areas that need to be addressed and mastered in schools today. How individuals relate to others in the "real world" is a major factor in whether they will be successful. One of the top reasons people are fired from their jobs is because they can't get along with their coworkers.
Mark Leaming
Media specialist and careers teacher
Laquey Middle School
Laquey, Missouri
The most important skill students need to master is reading. It is a necessary tool that guides education. Without reading skills, students struggle in all subjects -- whether it's social studies, science, or math. Reading not only allows the flow of imagination and fantasy, it is also an everyday instrument for information and communication.
Agnieszka Gawecki
Reading teacher
Glenwood School for Boys and Girls
St. Charles, Illinois
It is critical for young people to learn to read, and to read and understand our shared civic history.
Michael McNeece
Stern Enhancement School
Greenville, Mississippi
Communication is still the most critical skill students need. Regardless of how “wired” our society is, it still comes down to relationships. If students are unable to effectively communicate with people, be it in verbal or in written form, they will fail.
Erika Saunders
Special education teacher
Joseph C. Ferguson Elementary School
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The most critical skill students require is the ability to organize their time, their life, their responsibilities, and their studies. The wonderful thing about this skill is that there is no right way for any one person. Organization is a creative endeavor; each student can find his or her own way. There are messy organizers, neat organizers, and filers. Everything successful in life is organized. The brain is the most complex and most highly organized object in the universe.
David Bastedo
Biology department chair
San Bernardino Valley College
San Bernardino, California
The most critical skill is understanding community and how it works. Students should use their local community as a living laboratory, learn the history of the place, learn about habitat, systems, politics, and how decisions are made. They should invite community members to the school, and they should go out of the school and meet people and help them by doing service-learning projects. A good sense of community will not only help their own communities when they are adults, but it will also help the world by promoting strong, diverse, action-oriented communities.
Kathleen Diehl
Partnership and conservation education coordinator
Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests
Rutland, Vermont
The most critical skill every student should master is to write with clarity and persuasion, supporting their ideas with valid evidence. No matter what major or career a student chooses, the ability to write well will set the student a step above his or her peers.
Anne Macleod Weeks
Director, Upper School
Agnes Irwin School
Rosemont, Pennsylvania
Critical thinking skills enable students to solve problems, reach their potential, create, empathize, write, build, comprehend, and so much more. Without critical thinking skills students will be at a loss in our ever-changing world.
Sherri Baktuit
Second-grade teacher
Soldotna Elementary School
Soldotna, Alaska
Students must master the ability to work cooperatively with others. Ironically, today's communication devices -- cell phones, computer email, and instant messaging -- are interfering with our children's interpersonal skills. In our town, many graduating high school students go off to college only to return to local institutions because they are not comfortable in a larger, more diverse environment.
Students need to be placed in problem-solving group situations with diverse populations of their peers early and often to increase their comfort level for success in the real world. A recent change at our high school restricting cell phone use during the school day resulted in an unexpected but welcome change in the school cafeteria: Students were speaking to each other, having actual conversations. The world is no longer an insular place and our children must be prepared to deal with the diversity.
Kathy O'Donnell-Moss
Special education teacher
New Haven, Connecticut
While we can never lose sight of the "content" of education, we must also prepare students with the "skills" of education. In the complex and evolving twenty-first-century world our students will live and work in, knowing how to learn will be as important as what they learn.
Jim Yeager
Director of instructional technology
Arkansas Schools
Pottsville, Arkansas
The most important skill for our students to learn today is critical thinking. By developing the ability to read, understand, and evaluate information, they will be better able to make informed decisions and choose among possible solutions. With this skill, they can succeed in any arena -- from the classroom to society in general -- using previous knowledge to approach new situations with an open mind.
Michael Lanstrum
Instructional specialist for mathematics
Cuyahoga Community College, Western Campus
Parma, Ohio
The social-emotional skills are the foundation of learning. Not only do these skills enhance cooperative learning opportunities, but they also instill individual accountability, foster the ability to cope with learning frustrations, enable control if impetuous behavior, and promote self-reflection.
