Preparing Youth For The 21st Century

"June 1989." Bibliography: p. 86-92.

This publication points the way to future initiatives to improve youth labour market and educational outcomes as identified by policy-makers and experts of OECD countries brought together at the Washington Conference "Preparing Youth for the 21st Century."

CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria argues for a renewed commitment to the world’s most valuable educational tradition. The liberal arts are under attack. The governors of Florida, Texas, and North Carolina have all pledged that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts, and they seem to have an unlikely ally in President Obama. While at a General Electric plant in early 2014, Obama remarked, "I promise you, folks can make a lot more, potentially, with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree." These messages are hitting home: majors like English and history, once very popular and highly respected, are in steep decline. "I get it," writes Fareed Zakaria, recalling the atmosphere in India where he grew up, which was even more obsessed with getting a skills-based education. However, the CNN host and best-selling author explains why this widely held view is mistaken and shortsighted. Zakaria eloquently expounds on the virtues of a liberal arts education—how to write clearly, how to express yourself convincingly, and how to think analytically. He turns our leaders' vocational argument on its head. American routine manufacturing jobs continue to get automated or outsourced, and specific vocational knowledge is often outdated within a few years. Engineering is a great profession, but key value-added skills you will also need are creativity, lateral thinking, design, communication, storytelling, and, more than anything, the ability to continually learn and enjoy learning—precisely the gifts of a liberal education. Zakaria argues that technology is transforming education, opening up access to the best courses and classes in a vast variety of subjects for millions around the world. We are at the dawn of the greatest expansion of the idea of a liberal education in human history.

Taking a broader view of transition outcomes than many previous comparative studies, this study reveals the complex and many-faceted national institutional arrangements that can result in successful transitions to working life.

This book describes the kind of education system that is needed for the future. The text originated with a study that involved 21 leaders in business, education, government, and other fields who identified more than 250 characteristics that would enhance schools' capability in preparing students for a global knowledge/information age. Followup surveys asked participants to prioritize the 250 items and gauge the items' potential impact on student learning. Chapter 1 presents 16 major characteristics developed after a thorough review of the entire study. Some of these characteristics include "All students have equal opportunity for an outstanding education, with adequate funding, no matter where they live,""Educators are driven by high expectations and clear, challenging standards that are widely understood by students, families and communities," and "Students learn to think, reason and make sound decisions and demonstrate values inherent in a democracy." Chapters 2 through 11 review specific characteristics identified in each of 12 categories. These chapters present explanations of eight or more characteristics that were rated highest in the survey. Chapter 12 offers suggestions about how school leaders might put this research to work in their communities. The conclusion of most chapters or sections includes a listing of additional characteristics identified by the original 21 community leaders. (RJM)

This book offers educators new understandings of 21st century diversity emerging from contemporary national events within the U.S., global movements, and changes in the world political order that have long-lasting impact on local education and call for rethinking traditional generalizations and empirical prescriptions for inclusivity in teaching and learning. The book expands the literature on teacher preparation and intercultural education by providing the educational community with critical perspectives, theoretical approaches, and research methodologies for educational inquiry responsive to diversity. Driven by changes in classroom diversity this book offers educators, researchers and policy makers a language for articulating complex differences in educational reform, policy and practice.