Heavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life.
The appropriate and skillful application of hard skills is soft skills dependent.
~ Corporate Learning World Blog
Working with grade 7-12 students in a public school for more than a quarter century, and as a summer youth employment counselor for more than a decade, it has been my experience that a lack of soft skills (perseverance, ambition, self-confidence, self-discipline, patience, initiative, integrity, empathy, courage, cooperative, resilient…) has directly contributed to declining student achievement and performance in the classroom and on the job.
While mastery of content and literacy skills are important for career and college readiness, these performance standards are too often trumped or canceled out when a student or employee lacks a work ethic, emotional intelligence, and has not developed a personal code of conduct.
One of the underlying premises of CCSS appears to be that students who cannot read and write on an advanced college level are destined to be unsuccessful in life. Not everyone can be an advanced reader, no matter how hard they try. Do proponents of CCSS really believe that the 15 to 20% (NICHD) of our population with language-based disabilities are doomed to failure in life?
Considering the diversity of student skills and abilities represented in our classrooms It is foolish and inherently unfair to define and predict student success in life based on a narrow and shallow set of testable math and reading skills.
Testing and training students to meet common math and ELA standards does not prepare them for the social and emotional challenges of uncommon careers.
The “power” and critical importance of soft skills is evidenced by the highly successful careers of Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Tom Cruise, Erin Brockovich, Magic Johnson, Anderson Cooper, Winston Churchill and many other dyslexics.
These individuals and many others learners like them have not allowed limited reading and literacy skills or a low score on a standardized test to define them and curtail their goals and achievements in life. Instead, they relied upon their special talents and abilities to overcome obstacles in life and compensate for any cognitive deficiencies.
Emotional intelligence often “levels the playing field” and helps adults to lead productive and very successful lives in spite of weaker reading or writing skills…
“…But what has become obvious—as evidenced by the sheer number of dyslexic World Economic Forum attendees in Davos and by plenty ofHeavy emphasis on “hard skills” leaves children unprepared for the real “tests” in life. | WagTheDog:
