What you need to know when you’re done with high school
I had a great experience working with a group of teachers and leaders in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, a couple weeks ago. While I like to kid about them being a “tough crowd,” the truth is that they were an open-minded group who asked great questions.
One of the participants (I can’t recall her name – sorry!) challenged me during my session to identify the Top Ten Things Every Graduating High School Student Know or Understand. Since I enjoy a challenge, I told her I’d work on it and post a response here. I’m not sure it’s what she had in mind, but it’s the best I can think of.
- Know what is valuable. The value of factual information is either at or quickly approaching zero. What you need are skills. Skills that will allow you to learn and re-learn will be more important than factual knowledge. Now, don’t read this to say that factual knowledge is never valuable or that it shouldn’t be taught — all things in moderation will create balance — but if all you take away from science class is that you memorized the Periodic Table, then we may have a disconnect between what we do in school and what you’ll do when you’re done in school.
- Learn how to learn. In our information-rich, always-on, instant-access world, the winner isn’t the one who knows the most, rather it’s the one who can do the most. So how do you learn? Do you read a book or watch a video? Do you find a mentor or expert tutor? Do you throw your search at Google and click “I’m Feeling Lucky”?
- Tackle interesting problems, and be OK with messy solutions. Find an interesting problem and solve it in a unique way. But know that the answer will rarely be found in the form of a 5-paragraph essay or a nice, round integer.
- Be a connoisseur of information. Anyone with a computer or cellphone can do a Google search. But you need the information literacy to make sense of the results. The trade-off of having all this information a click away is that you’ll need to be able to read and assess it for possible reliability and validity issues.
- Be conscious of your digital footprint. It’s never too early to start being aware of your online presence. You will be Google-able and you will be Googled. I suggest that you be certain that you’re in control of what people find when they Google you.
- Give back. Share. Contribute. Help out. It doesn’t have to be monetary.
- People are more important than technology. Technology is awesome because it gives us the ability to break down barriers. We can share and collaborate in ways that, even as recently as 5 years ago, seemed like the exclusive domain of the crew of the Enterprise. So use the technology to build and strengthen connections, but always remember that technology is only one tool in relationship-building.
- Find something you’re passionate about. Life is really going to stink if you can’t find something you love to do.
- Be nice. One effect of all this technology is that everyone who’s anyone has a blog or a Twitter account or a Facebook account. That’s swell. But what I don’t particularly care for are those who use these platforms as a soapbox to pop off about anything and everything simply because now they can. And because there are no short-term consequences, people uncork with things they’d never say in front of actual people for fear of getting punched.
- Play. It’s not just for kids anymore. Play is an important part of learning. It helps us think.
So that’s pretty much it. I’m not sure if it’s what she expected, but that’s that I think our kids need to know when they leave high school. I sure hope you weren’t expecting me to say they needed to understand the electoral college or how to change the amplitude of a sine wave. They can look that stuff up when they need it.
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- Computer News » Blog Archive » What I Want My Students to Know
- What you need to know when you’re done with teacher school
- What every student should know when graduating high school « Longhornliteracy's Blog
- Cat Tech » Blog Archive » Outcomes for High School
- What We Should Have Learned in High School?
- What you need to know when you’re done with high school « Stephanie Conlon's Blog
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Hello Scott Jelias, My name is Brooke McQuillan. I was assigned to read you blog by my teacher. This post got my attention. I think that giving high school students some incite into what they are to expect might ready their minds more. Being considerate of your digital footprint is a good step. Facebook and Twitter are good “social networks”, but in other cases have been know to get some in more trouble than expected. Giving back will always one of the things at the top of my list. You never know what you might need from a friend the next day! Finding things you are passionate about is also a big thing I agree with. I loved this post. Thank you for sharing.
edm310.blogspot.com (our class blog)
brookemcquillanedm310.blogspot.com (my blog)
I really believe that we need to be learning what is important to us, and what we are passionate about, because that is what will be of use to us in the future. But I think that common knowledge is important too, we just have to decide how far we are going to take that knowledge.
Nice post. :]
Hi Scott Jelias, I’m T Knoll and I’m sorry I can’t say my full name because our teacher is really strict on that. For my English class I was assigned to read this blog. Most of your points were dead on although your “Give Back” point I didn’t fully agree with because I believe it’s your choice wether to share info or not. I especially agree with your “People are more important than technology” point. I don’t use Facebook anymore because of that reason. I believe building a relationship takes time and simple chatting is nothing more than banter. Your post was interesting and very helpful this could be useful in later life.
Thank you for sharing your opinions.
Here is my blog
tknollblog.blogspot.com
Hey, T.
Giving back doesn’t mean money. In fact, by commenting on my blog you’re giving back to me by sharing with me your perspective and insight.
No one is going to make you give back. But if every generation isn’t working — at least a little bit — to make the world a better place, then what are we really doing?
Just food for thought.
Awesome list… I would only make one change, and I don’t think it’s purely semantic.
I prefer ‘kind’ to ‘nice.’ I feel like there’s a richness and a depth to ‘kind’ that is missing from ‘nice.’
Chris – I think you’re right on with the nuances of the difference between “nice” and “kind.” Thanks for dropping by!
Scott, this is a beautiful post, full of wisdom and meaning. I am going to save it and print it for my students. Thank you!
Right on, Scott!
Bottom line: it is not about the knowledge or the thinking but how we relate the two. Over dependence on either facts or thinking reduces the potency of both.
We will still need to learn basic facts and processes because we need them as tools and guides to thinking. For example, we learn to read so that we can read to learn.
We want kids to know their math facts, but not as an end. We want them to be able to apply them to solving problems. And yes, facts are becoming increasingly easy to look up – provided we know how and where to look.
Content and skills are not an end, but rather a means. They are tools and vehicles for students to apply if they are to meet and successfully address the multiple challenges of the 21st century. Students will also need to learn how to think with facts and processes – and on occasion, think in spite of them.
I believe it was Francis Bacon who said “knowledge is power. But real power lies in applying knowledge.”
It absolutely has to be a balance. And as students move into high school and – theoretically – closer to a profession, the granularity of what factual knowledge they have to have increases.
A junior who knows she wants to be a doctor probably has a real reason to memorize the names of all of the bones in the foot. The future engineer, on the other hand, may need to memorize certain physics constants. And the writer-to-be should know key literary elements inside and out.
We, the educators, need to strive for a system that is more adaptable to what kids really need and not just what some of us think they need.
Great list, Scott –
I actually came up with a similar list a few years back, and included it in my book, “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers.”
I call the list “Ten Principles for Successful Living.” These, I believe, are the ten things every teacher hopes students learn from us, in addition to the subject we teach.
1. Be where you’re supposed to be, on time and prepared.
2. Produce a finished product that won’t need explaining or excuses.
3. Think for your self, and do the right thing even when no one is watching.
4. Take responsibility for your decisions.
5. Follow all steps of directions.
6. Search for solutions instead of just pointing out problems.
7. Show respect – and expect respect in return.
8. Think about how your present actions affect your future opportunities.
9. Present yourself as an intelligent person.
10. Put more into the world than you take out.
These principles are posted on my classroom wall. There is also a downloadable classroom sign available on the resources page of my website, http://www.seemeafterclass.net.
I hope you and your readers find this helpful. I’d love to hear your opinions.
Roxanna Elden
“I sure hope you weren’t expecting me to say they needed to understand the electoral college or how to change the amplitude of a sine wave. They can look that stuff up when they need it.”
I was with you right up until this ending, Scott. When was the last time you had a rich, engaging conversation with someone at a party or family event who had to stop in order to “google” something on his fancy phone every time he had no idea what the topic meant before joining the chat? He might actually be a greatly “skilled” conversationalist, but without context and prior knowledge, he’ll sound mostly silly or remain quiet (hopefully).
There is no critical thinking without solid content… Bloom’s taxonomy starts with knowledge, and the more student’s can add to their store, the more diverse and wealthy as thinkers they become. A “connoisseur of information” (or of anything, for that matter) has tasted a wide variety, has a discerning palate, and knows the difference between the good, the bad, and the ugly. But “knowing” comes before knowing the difference.
Let’s not throw out “facts” as the enemy of 21st century skills just yet… at least not while the Abc’s, one plus one, and the Periodic Table form a sound starting point to build from.
Thanks!
JC -
I’m left a bit unsure of where we disagree on this. When you refer to my post as implying that factual knowledge is the enemy of 21st century learning, I wonder if you’re not overstating the point I am trying to make. I said:
And a few comments above yours, I also wrote:
Since you make reference to my last paragraph, I will do the same. I have a basic, working knowledge of the electoral college. I don’t know the intricacies like how many electors Indiana has or in which states the winning party does not automatically get all the state’s electoral votes. Unless I’m at a dinner party chatting with a campaign strategist I would argue that I could get by with what I know.
As a former math and physics teacher, I’d also have to admit that the number of times I’ve been asked to change the amplitude of a sine graph when I was not standing in front of the class is effectively zero.
Now, should I understand the big picture concept of periodic functions and their general characteristics? I think so. We’ve got seasonal changes in the amount of daylight and daily changes of high and low tides. These things exist in the real world and they’re messy and imperfect. I like that.
Extending my argument to the extreme of “no one should memorize facts” is reductio ad absurdum. It’s not what I said. You acknowledge that the ABCs and 1+1 are the starting point and that’s all that I was going for.
So to clarify: Learning facts for the sake of taking a test that verifies that you learned those facts is “memorizing.” It’s not “learning.” I would like to see our students (and my own kids) get an education which, to me, involves knowing some facts as well as what to do with those facts. Learning them for a test only to have those facts forgotten an hour later is not something that I believe has a whole lot of value in terms of an “education.”
People who know a lot of facts but lack a context for those facts or the skills to apply them will succeed on Jeopardy but probably not much beyond that.
So let’s learn facts, but let’s make sure that they’re facts worth learning.
Thanks for reading, John. And thanks for the comment.
I beleive students should be more acknowledged about the factual life and knowledge that they need to know relevant to their work.
A student who wants to become an engineer should acquire the knowledge that help him to master his future job. It is our role as policy makers to consult the relevant educational experts to determine what knowledge should be acquired by sudents for each area of specialists.
Absolutely correct. We spend a lot of time trying to make sure kids know every piece of minutia about every academic discipline.
What is canon of knowledge that is required to be a functional human being in the world today?