21st Century Skills

Ken Kay, president of Partnership for 21st Century Skills, talks about the lack of life and career skills that 21st century students do not have.  A new model for education is needed because technology has replaced workers who once performed routine work.  Also, doing well in school no longer grantees one a secure career as it once did previous generations ago.  The minority population is steady rising while American students are still scoring lower than average on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).  Innovative, creative, critical thinking, and problem solving skills are greatly needed.  Because the world is changing at such a fast rate, educational frameworks have to be revised.  The Framework for 21st Century Learning articulates creativity and innovation, flexibility and adaptability, leadership and cross-cultural skills for "all" students.
After reading this article, I found myself a bit puzzled.  I highly agree that teachers must be pulled out of 20th century thinking to give effective 21st century instruction.  After all, technology is booming.  However, mixing education with life skills can get tricky.  Some children are more independent than others.  Those students go on to be leaders in the working world.  Unfortunately, some children do not have an independent trait in them.  Do I feel like it's my job as a teacher to teach them how to be independent?  To a certain extent. Being independent in the classroom and the working world becomes two complete different things.  There are many ethnic backgrounds in the U.S. and each are accustomed to their own traditions.  Therefore, teaching a child how to find answers on their own does not necessarily mean they will be independent in the working world.  Also, the classroom is a controlled environment.  Everything happens under the guidance of the teacher.  So teaching innovative skills, along with adaptability, has its limits.