Collaboration Is NOT Just a "21st-Century" Skill

The elementary school "Cafetorium" is about half full, as we have come together on a hot summer day for a "visioning meeting" on what we want from the next principal of the school. The Assistant Superintendant running the meeting stands earnestly at the front of the room, in front of the chart-paper easel (a prop with which I am all too familiar), markers in hand, ready to collect our ideas. She has blond hair and looks tired, and for some reason I think about the fact that she is younger than I am.

The group is comprised mostly of parents like me, along with a clot of about eight extremely vocal teachers. The Assistant Supe encourages us to blurt out our thoughts, as she lists them. Parents tend to say words like "caring" and "supportive." Teachers use similar words, hoping for "positivity" and "honoring what has worked so far."

Then I raise my hand and drop the bomb: "I'd like the new principal to be able to discuss -- at least to some degree -- the 21st Century skills discussed in Tony Wagner's book The Global Achievement Gap." (I feel the teachers turning in their chairs all at once, eyebrows up, as if to say, Oh boy, this one's fluent in Edu-Speak.) "I want to know that the faculty are thinking not only about getting my kids to be good test-takers, but also helping them to be good team members, to listen and ask questions and to be problem-solvers."

The other heads in the parent section begin nodding like bobble head dolls in the back of a pickup truck. A woman loudly backs me up in a way that makes me feel like I'm in a Baptist Revivalist church. Defensively, an older male teacher says, "These tests are not going to go away." And the usual argument ensues: It's in the students' best interest to pass, there are some good things on the test, etc., etc. I just needed to go on record about what ELSE I want my kids to learn. And judging from the bobble heads and "amens," I'd say I wasn't alone.

So why does this "debate" still go on? Maybe it's a fear of being stretched too thin. Maybe teachers are so pushed to their limits trying to get kids to pass exams that there's nothing left for the "rest" of the child? When I think about collaboration, though, I am hard pressed to think of a time in my professional life when I wasn't asked to do it -- at meetings, in committees and subcommittees and in all sorts of "teams." And, of course, with my students, in the classroom, as well as in the hallways of the schools where I've worked. Maybe there was a time, back at the birth of public education in this country, when we could train young people without this skill, although I doubt it.

I don't mean to minimize how difficult a job teachers have. Believe me, I know. And I'm pleased to report that the principal they ended up hiring has spoken out publicly in favor of the 21st Century skills. Now it's a matter of seeing how she makes sure her teaching staff have everything they need to bring this vital information to their students. Meanwhile, I'll do everything I can to nurture these skills at home -- something every parent must do, as well.