Viewing a presentation from the Partnership for 21^st century skills and a clip from the documentary Two Million Minutes, school leaders in Loudon Country, VA got a lesson in the need for change. Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sharon D. Ackerman provided the briefing, and she succeeded in initiating a vital conversation.

Ackerman explained that students need more than English, math and science. They need the ability to understand the "interdisciplinary themes" of global awareness and economic, business and civic literacy.

"One of our concerns about the world we live in now, is that we are all just bombarded with information," Ackerman said. To make students educated consumer of information, they need to think about sources and evaluate what they are reading.

Superintendent Edgar Hatrick, said he believed that Loudoun was doing its part to introduce students to higher levels of academics. He added, however, that more needed to be done to teach students about the global community in which they will operate. "We spend two weeks in the second grade teaching about ancient China, we spend two weeks in ninth grade teaching about modern China. But we spend no time teaching about India," said the superintendent.

A local elected official encouraged the idea of not putting forward a "homogeneous" plan for students. After recently visitng a classroom of at-risk students, she observed, "What it takes to motivate them is so completely different than what it takes to motivate another group."

A school board member cautioned against subscribing to the idea that more is better. She said she has seen many children who are trying to do sports and four AP classes and be class president, who are being hurt both mentally and physically. "I would like to see how many of those in India don't make it," Godfrey said about the pressure to succeed. "I am interested in the whole child, not just the child that is making straight As."

Source: Leesburg Today, 21st Century Education: Providing A Global Context For Academics