Core Knowledge or 21st Century Skills. What do your students need?

I recently read an article on that was talking about the push for students to develop their 21st century skills. It mentioned that at least 10 states had adopted what they called p21 into their curriculum and standards.  P21 stands for Partnership for 21st Century Skills, this Arizona based group that sees the need to not only develop knowledge, but also skills.  They want students to be prepared not only cognitively for the challenges that they will face but also to prepare them for the skills that they will be expected to know and use in the workplace.  As with all things though there is a group of educators who oppose this movement and are in favor of Common Core.  They want their students to have "a full core curriculum."  This group speaks about how those students who are economically disadvantaged will not benefit as much from P21 skills because they are not going to have as many resources available to them at home so they will fall behind.  As with most articles it doesn't offer up a solution to the readers but rather it gives you some information and leaves the decision making up to you.

This article did make me consider what is important to incorporate into your classroom and what skills do your students need to be successful in school and then after school.  Is it more important to focus on the technological skills and the learning they can bring or should you focus on the standards that you are forced to meet?  Is there a way to incorporate the two and make learning more meaningful and deeper?  From what I gathered in chapter one of the Brooks-Young book and then from this article was that teaching your students 21st century skills will help them to be that more engaged and better equipped student.  Personally I think you need to make sure you that you have a balance between the old and the new.  You also have to know your students and know what kind of things will be helpful for them to know how to use and which won't be as helpful.  My hope is that as a teacher I will be able to learn that balance and not only teach my students the standards that are important for them to learn but also that I will be able to teach them the skills that will be important for them to use later in their lives.  If you would like to read this article please click here.