21st Century Learning

This week I took a look at the website for the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. My initial response was: "Where is there room for the arts?" Most of the pieces of information available on the home page showed me students in science and language arts classes and most of the information given was specifically not for visual arts or music.

Upon further investigation, I found some tag-words mentioned in the framework; "critical thinking" "media" "collaboration". These skills are all used in the arts. The framework also mentions the core subjects as the "3Rs" (which is misleading) then further describes them as: English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics, government, economics, arts, history, and geography.

The more I began to read, I also noticed that while I liked some of the framework presented, this plan would once again add additional assessment for students. I couldn't find any assessments for the elementary level, so I'm not sure how they would be measured. I also feel this partnership assumes schools can purchase and maintain 21st century classrooms, which isn't the norm for schools (at least in my area). We are making improvements to the amount of technology available to students, but the changes are occurring at a much slower pace than technology becomes available.

Overall, I feel the site provides some information and general framework guides, but lacks specific planning necessary to implement into everyday schools. I think everyone needs to take a step back and decide why students are in schools in the first place. Are they there to learn? Meet specific standards the state deems important? Prepare them for a job/career/college/life? Social understanding and how to build relationships? How to succeed? All of the above? Some of the above? The answer appears to be skewed from place to place, but it must be the foundation for whatever framework we place on it for our schools to have the outcome we as a community are seeking.