The Rush for '21st-Century Skills'

Anne Arundel County: New high school courses with a 21st-century focus include Chinese, financial literacy, e-commerce in the global market, forensic science and environmental resource management.

Alexandria: The school system is coordinating a community reading event of Daniel H. Pink's "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future."

Howard County: "Basically our entire curriculum and instructional program is designed to prepare students for the world they will enter after graduation," spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.

Who Profits Most?

Tom Pamperin, an English teacher at Chippewa Falls High School in Wisconsin, has been attending meetings on 21st-century skills and doesn't like what he hears:

If the emperor isn't exactly naked, his suit of clothes is hardly new. If the meaningless hype were all I objected to, I wouldn't be so worried. But I see a far more serious threat inherent here. When you look at the list of members (Adobe, Apple, Cable in the Classroom, Microsoft, Texas Instruments . . . ) in the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, it's clear that many of the organizations involved have a vested interest in pushing for a greater emphasis on technology. There is a lot of money to be made selling software, computers and high-tech gadgets to schools.

For example, [here are] some of the specific changes proposed by a Wisconsin state task force for the discipline of English: "Increase emphasis on students' reading . . . of complex texts in order to: . . . comprehend and communicate quantitative, technical, and mathematical information." And: "Increase emphasis on students' ability to produce complex texts . . . to communicate quantitative, technical, and mathematical information."

The various disciplines each offer a different lens through which students can view the world. You learn something different from literature than you do from math or science, and you learn it in a different way. But the 21st-century skills movement seems bent on reducing a wealth of knowledge and diversity of perspectives to a simple, business-minded set of skills. This would be great, obviously, for the corporate world. But since literature, art, music -- much of what defines the human experience -- are not useful in the boardroom, they won't be given much space in our public schools.