Shortly, success in the real world will be divorced from pure academic achievement. There are several reasons why this will happen of which the unstoppable march of globalization and greater interconnectedness are most important. When one’s colleagues are just as likely to be from New York or Shanghai as New Delhi or Bangalore, the skills essential for success will be unlike those needed by earlier generations. First and foremost, to be successful in the future, children must be taught life skills.
Why Life Skills Should be Taught in Schools
In the early part of this decade, a Harvard University study revealed adults having strong life skills were more likely to be successful and happy than those having only strong academic skills. Hence life skills have always played a part in determining success. What makes such skills even more essential today is the world is changing at mind boggling speed. An array of new technologies and evolving lifestyles mean children today need new kinds of life skills. So while a generation ago being computer literate may have been considered a vital life skill, today children must learn how to use social media responsibly and productively. They must also learn how to thrive and be productive in the virtual world where an increasing number of people spend time. Knowing how to shop astutely is also a necessary life skill, as is self-management.
The reason such skills should be taught to school-going children is such children are specially adapted to acquire them. Time and time again it has been proven that the human brain primarily hardwires itself when a child is aged 6 to 16. Hence skills learned between these ages become ingrained. As a result, a child who taught economic life skills while his brain is hardwiring becomes a smart consumer. Such a child can participate with his parents while shopping and offer insightful suggestions regarding what his parents should buy.
How Life Skills Prepare Children for Real-World Challenges
A child who is taught how to use social media astutely will be unlikely to make the kinds of social media gaffs that regularly make headlines today. Such a child will know when and how to be assertive on social media and how to use social media advantageously. The virtual world will play an important role in the decades ahead. Children must learn how they can use it to become successful professionals. Consider that maximising productivity requires knowing how to use tools that exist in the virtual world. Children must learn at the right age how to find relevant information in the virtual world and how, when needed, to profit from virtual tools.
Children taught other life skills such as self-management are likely to spend their time wisely and see tasks through till completion. Unlike those lacking such skills, they are likely to be resolute in attaining goals by working systematically.
Other life skills such as leadership, ethics, and environmental skills will also play a part in children’s success as adults. Children taught leadership skills will grow into confident adults and work easily in teams. Ethics or ethical skills will ensure children, when faced with moral dilemmas, more often than not, make the right decision. Such skills will be crucial in the years ahead as society reshapes and transforms itself into one unlike any before. Lastly, the planet’s ecology is under threat. In just the past few days, fires have been ravaging the Amazon disrupting an already delicate ecosystem. The leaders of the future will have to weigh the benefits of economic progress against their ecological cost. Such leaders must learn today as much about how to build a prosperous society as how to lessen its impact on the planet.