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"This is a wake-up call," Ken Kay says.
2007 WEAC Nearly 400 WEAC members, staff and trainers participated in 43 training sessions at the 2007 WEAC Winter Conference at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. More than 130 members took advantage of the Cyberlobby stations set up by the WEAC Legislative Committee to e-mail their elected officials in support of Governor Doyle’s pro-public education state budget proposal, generating more than 400 e-mails. In addition, 133 members signed up for the new WEAC Legislative Action Network, pledging to Cyberlobby their legislators four times per year on the latest, breaking education issues facing the Legislature. For the first time, 59 members picked up materials to begin their local NEA Fund effort during the month of March, three months earlier than in the past, in order to help members going to the NEA Representative Assembly to reach their goal of raising $150 per person. At the Candidates Forum, conference participants also had an opportunity to hear the candidates for WEAC president, vice president and NEA director and alternate director positions describe their visions for the future. |
To help young people succeed in the high-tech 21st century world economy, schools must shift their focus from memorization skills to critical-thinking, problem-solving and communication skills, Ken Kay said Saturday (March 3, 2007) at the 2007 WEAC Winter Conference.
The education system we have today is based on the 20th century model, when we prepared students for one or two jobs their entire careers, Kay said. But the world has changed. The U.S. Department of Labor says that young people today will average 10.2 jobs between ages 18 and 38.
"Young people must be able to reinvent themselves," he said in a luncheon address at the conference in Milwaukee.
The traditional model of teaching core subjects and assessing students on them "doesn't cut it in the 21st century," Kay said.
Instead, he said, schools must integrate these learning and thinking skills:
Add to that list a set of life skills, he said, that include leadership, ethics, accountability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, people skills, self direction, innovation, and social responsibility. Other content areas that need to be emphasized, he said, are global awareness; financial, economic, business and entrepreneurship literacy; civic literacy, and health and wellness awareness.
Kay is president of the Partnership on 21st Century Skills and chair and co-founder of Infotech Strategies Inc. The Partnership brings together the business community, education leaders and policymakers to define a vision for 21st century education. Wisconsin - with WEAC as a key partner - is the third state to join with the Partnership to promote these concepts on a statewide basis. The NEA is a founding member and leader of the Partnership nationwide. North Carolina and West Virginia have launched state initiatives.
In Wisconsin, WEAC is working with Governor Doyle and the Department of Public Instruction to form a P21 advisory group. Another strategy includes initiating dialogues with policymakers, educators, parents, and business leaders on challenges facing the state and our students.
Kay listed strategies he would like Wisconsin to pursue:
Ken Kay's entire PowerPoint presentation
Partnership for 21st Century Skills Web site
Posted March 5, 2007