21st. Century Skills

In Today's day and age, 21st. Century skills are skills needed in order to be able to compete in the workforce and be a well rounded individual. As stated in The Workplace Readiness Article in order to be successful once entering the workforce, a person must have the correct foundation, which most likely will have come from their schooling, and right now there is big gap between people who are high school graduates and people who attended a university. 

As Maura Banta stated in The Value of Teaching 21st-century skills are the skills necessary in order to be connected to the world around us. 21st Century skills are about the world around us, they include knowing how to utilize technology, being able to collaborate, problem solve, applied skills, etc. How could there be no room in schools to teach these kind of skills ?   

Some of these skills have already been in our schools for a long time and maybe some critics might not see it, i remember learning how to use a computer, and in grammar schools especially the younger children are taught how to work in groups. The problem is that classes such as computers are optional and not mandatory for high school students, and once we pass kindergarten the collaboration aspect disappears, because it is discouraged as if it was a bad thing, and doesn't come into play again until we are adults in college. Not having team work projects in schools, and especially applied projects cause students to not be engaged in what they are learning, and if something is not understood there is no one else to ask. From my experience, every time i had a subject that was not to my liking such as math or physics i would keep saying what is the point where am i going to use this. When i took physics during my undergraduate, i had anxiety went about taking physics again, but this time my professor would explain a concept during lecture and then we would go out an apply to something in our everyday lives. He explained work by comparing it to going up the stairs in science hall, and we had to figure out the angles and slopes of of the stairs. All of a sudden it was engaging and made sense, and i wanted to learn more.  

The critics, such as in the article Critical thinking? You need knowledge by Diane Ravitch, think that by teaching 21st Century Skills other subjects will suffer by limiting the amount of knowledge and time that are spent on them. How could  this be possible ? 21st Century skills can be applied to a subject such as science, when making an applied experiment such as the stairs, the student is learning skills and gaining knowledge the difference is that they are applying the knowledge and not just being lectured. Once school is over, and it is time to join the workforce how is that student going to thrive if they don't know how to apply the knowledge they acquired to the job they have. It cannot be just about cramming in tons of knowledge, because nowadays everyone has Google at their 
fingertips. Testing the knowledge gained will always be under question, because there are many variables. One is that not all students do well in standardized tests. But, there should be a nationwide standard on testing. If other aspects should be considered they should be like the ones considered by The Urban Academy, such as test scores, attendance, and college acceptance.

Knowledge and 21st century skills are the answer to creating a well rounded individual, which is what schools have always strived to achieve. As Alvin Toffler was quoted in 21st Century Skills: Will Our Students Be Prepared?  "'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.'"