Asking the Right Questions

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard’s change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a “global achievement gap” which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must have skills of the future:

* Critical thinking and problem-solving

* Collaboration across networks and leading by influence

* Agility and adaptability

* Initiative and entrepreneurialism

* Effective oral and written communication

* Accessing and analyzing information

* Curiosity and imagination

As I continue my education at Lamar, I take a little piece of valuable information and put it in my back pocket. There are so many young, bright minded adults who want to fill inspired and uplifted but find lack thereof because generations look down on us “Millennials” thinking we are lazy, and always glued to our phone. Dr. Wagner gives an insightful and optimistic speech about what we need as educators. Keeping an open mind to our generation potential.

In the you tube video, “The Seven Essential Life Skills” with Ellen Galinsky outlines seven essential life skills that all draw on executive functions of the brain- the network of abilities that allow us to manage our thoughts, emotions, and behavior as we pursue goals.

Although I like to be reminded of these essential skills occasionally, most of us have come to the same conclusions in our life. But we still fail to be proactive persons. Why is that? I think it’s because there is a difference between knowing what you need to do, knowing how to do it, and showing up doing it. This discrepancy is huge in some people.