Are ya sick of this, too?

I am so sick of hearing about 21st Century Work Force Competencies. 

So many ninnies think they have a crystal ball, and can see over the horizons.

I am also wary about those P-20 Councils springing up all over the place. Guess the politicos, standardistos, and business folks don't have anything better to do. Maybe we should send them our laundry to do. Think this will keep them busy and out of our faces?

Education should LEAD OUT and what I am seeing is that everything going on seems to HEM IN.

I like Lynn Stoddard's notion that we should be educating for HUMAN GREATNESS.

According to Stoddard, this encompasses the following qualities and questions:

Identity - To what degree does this school help students know who they are, see their great potential as contributors, and develop their unique talents, gifts, interests, and abilities?

Inquiry - To what degree is this school nurturing curiosity and helping students learn how to ask good questions? Do teachers set an example of a curious, inquiring attitude?

Interaction - To what degree does this school promote courtesy, caring, communication, cooperation, and literacy?

Initiative - How much does this school foster self-directed learning, will power, and self-evaluation?

Imagination - How much does this school nurture creativity and creative expression?

Intuition - How much does this school help students discover truth with their hearts as well as with their minds?

Integrity - To what degree does this school develop honesty, character, morality, and responsibility for self?

Literacy and Math - Are literacy and math taught and learned as tools of inquiry, communication, and problem-solving rather than as ends in and of themselves?

Parent Involvement - To what degree are parents involved as full partners with the school to help students grow as contributors to the school, home, and community?

I would also add: 

To what degree does the school encourage and support teachers and students co-creating curriculum, which opens up the world and the many opportunities to continue learning? 

To what degree does the school foster risk taking and educating the whole student?

To what degree does the school encourage and foster an integrated curriculum so that students understand that all learning is connected and goes beyond each subject area?

Yvonne