Partnership for 21st Century Skills website

Wow, I never knew that this site : http://www.p21.org existed. I have spent some time on the site reading through articles. I found one on executives stating that the 21st Century requires more skilled workers. These skills require the workers to not only know the three R's, but they need to be better prepared in the area of the four C's: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. These skills will become more important to business and organizations in the near future and our students need to learn these skills in order to be successful when leaving school.

I know that it is important to have these skills, however, I did not know that we are lacking in general with preparing our students with the four C's. According to the findings from the AMA, organizations will be requiring their workforce to be proficient with the four C's as part of their employees training and development. So, we as educators must start now, if we haven't already, with preparing our students with these necessary skills.

The website, P21.org, has many useful articles to read through that can give any educator a better understanding as to why it is important to prepare our students for the 21st Century. After looking at the Framework graphic, I have to disagree with the percentage that life and career skills is given. I know that the other three areas are important in order to be successful, but learning life and career skills is enormously important for everyone. You can be the smartest, brightest, etc, but if you do not possess life skills, then your are stuck in the mud, so to say.

As an educator, I can see where this site can have an impact on my students and how they view the 21st century skills that they will need to be successful.