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Teaching Tomorrow's Skills to Today's Students

By Heather Wolpert-Gawron

"Why do we have to do this?" Many teachers have been hearing this question more frequently in recent years. Students detect a deepening divide between "real life" and "school life," and they have a point. As teachers, we should commit ourselves to linking instruction directly to the skills students will need in higher education and the workplace.

As I wrote my recent book, Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers , I researched skills that stakeholders in higher education and business claim they need to see in their future candidates. As a result, I developed a list of 13 skills that today's students should master. The book shares strategies for helping students develop these skills.

Not long ago, I chiseled the list down to a manageable "top five" by asking fellow teachers which skills they believed were most important. Here are the skills teachers identified—along with a couple of...