Educating the Educators

There was a kerfuffle in this great brown land over changes to funding in education to allow for a leveling of the playing field in high schools (in particular) to build a better platform for our children's future. This is an admirable sentiment - if a little pointless. We don't really want to give more opportunities to those who would never take them, but rather should allow for those who would take opportunities to be exposed to a better education. This is a different thing.

But what exactly are we teaching kids these days? The same as we've ever taught them. Teaching the same stuff in a better way doesn't improve their future - it restricts it. If you look at employability (rather than further education at University because high school just doesn't prepare young adults enough), there are things that come up again & again that we often think of as attributes rather than skills. I differentiate these because most people seem to think that attributes can't be taught.

The things that I look for in an employee are:

• Ability to think - this is creative thinking, not critical, which is taught too often
• Adaptability - change is the future
• Multi-tasking - being used to handling multiple things, & this isn't a gender thing
• Team skills - working in a team, leading a team, not working alone
• Pressure - we leave this to students who want to do well in the HSC, but all types of non-University roles come under pressure
• Soft skills in general - emotional intelligence, for example

There are many other things that are teachable & useful, but they have one thing in common - they don't fall under the traditional subjects taught in high school, & the teachers that we have are not skilled or trained in these areas. We can't expect them to suddenly start teaching new curricula. There needs to be some planning to get us to the point where we can effectively introduce & deliver these topics & work towards our children's real future.

That way, we can become a much more cleverer country.