The Partnership for 19th Century Skills
I for one have heard quite enough about the 21st century skills that are sweeping the nation. Now, for the first time, children will be taught to think critically (never heard a word about that in the 20th century, did you?), to work in groups (I remember getting a grade on that very skill when I was in third grade a century ago), to solve problems (a brand new idea in education), and so on.Let me suggest that it is time to be done with this unnecessary conflict about 21st century skills. Let us agree that we need all those forenamed skills, plus lots others, in addition to a deep understanding of history, literature, the arts, geography, civics, the sciences, and foreign languages.
But allow me also to propose a new entity that will advance a different set of skills and understandings that are just as important as what are now called 21st century skills. I propose a Partnership for 19th Century Skills. This partnership will advocate for such skills, values, and understandings as:
The love of learning
The pursuit of knowledge
The ability to think for oneself (individualism)
The ability to work alone (initiative)
The ability to stand alone against the crowd (courage)
The ability to work persistently at a difficult task until it is finished (industriousness) (self-discipline)
The ability to think through the consequences of one’s actions on others (respect for others)
The ability to consider the consequences of one’s actions on one’s well-being (self-respect)
The recognition of higher ends than self-interest (honor)
The ability to comport oneself appropriately in all situations (dignity)
The recognition that civilized society requires certain kinds of behavior by individuals and groups (good manners) (civility)
The ability to believe in principles larger than one’s own self-interest (idealism)
The willingness to ask questions when puzzled (curiosity)
The readiness to dream about other worlds, other ways of doing things (imagination)
The ability to believe that one can improve one’s life and the lives of others (optimism)
The ability to speak well and write grammatically, using standard English (communication)
I invite readers to submit other 19th century skills that we should cultivate assiduously among the rising generation, on the belief that doing so will lead to happier lives and a better world.
Diane Ravitch
July 6th, 2009 at 9:09 am
> The ability to stand alone against the crowd
Sounds to me like she’s not being a team player…
July 6th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
A heartfelt “Amen!” to that. Well said, Diane.
July 6th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Thanks Diane and Common Core. I am copying your Partnership for 19th Century Skills so that I can read them to my children when they complain about why they have to study in the summer, do chores and behave like respectable people with dignity (unlike many of their peers).
Reading about “21st Century Skills” and then seeing how it and other “skills” are central to the science curriculum in Montgomery County MD has left me feeling defeated. But I push forward regardless. This summer I’m teaching my elementary school age kids and some of their friends animal classification. Mongtomery County Public School curriculum gurus can’t be bothered with this content. However, they do ask 6th graders to come up with the costs and benefits of a fisheries management program in their new curriculum (something I did in grad school while studying wildlife biology). Seems like a tough assignment for students who do not know anything about the biology of fish. But I assume that as long as they say the fishermen (fisherpeople?) are bad and protecting fish is good than they will get an A.
July 6th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Another 19th-century skill? Playing the piano.
I’m joking, but only a little. The study of music was very much a part of a person’s education 150 years ago. It not only had some practical value (singing schools cropped up all over the South so that people could participate more fully in church services), but there was a kind of understanding that music did something good, though not quite definable for the mind and for the soul.
What is tangible about the study of music is that you learn pretty quickly that you need to practice, that there are opportunities to work in groups towards a common end, that you learn aesthetics from the inside, and that it reinforces your understanding of simple math, particularly fractions.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:26 am
These are well-stated and, of course, sorely needed skills. The “courage” statement is especially relevant today because young people often lack the integrity to resist falling in with crowd behavior, whatever that is.
Does there need to be a statement about honesty? Maybe it could say, “Recognizing that doing the right thing is conducive to mental, emotional, and social health, behaving rightly.” Honesty is not a learning skill per se but does affect learning (i.e., plagiarism, cheating, etc.).
July 8th, 2009 at 8:09 am
What a beautiful and important piece. I have been thinking about it ever since I read it.
As for other 19th century skills, how about the absence of cynicism? I don’t know what else to call it. It is the willingness to believe that goodness is possible.
Too often people believe the worst of each other (or refuse to consider the possibility of something decent). They read selfish motives into every word and action; they even applaud such selfishness. The argument is: we’re all selfish at heart; we’re all out for ourselves. Anything that pretends otherwise is false. There is no real love or kindness; it’s all a delusion.
But who gave such people the authority to judge what was true or false? Who made them authorities with the touch of a wand? No one. There is no proof of the cynical argument—and while it seems at first to protect against harm, it does great harm.
Not that we must trust everyone and everything; that is just as dangerous. But we can certainly believe in the existence of good. We can believe in the imperfect but beautiful goodness of others; we can find it in ourselves.
July 8th, 2009 at 8:38 am
These are beautiful. Thank you for being a voice of sanity and reason, Diane.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
“As I see it, the best things schools can do for kids is to help them learn how to distinguish useful talk from bullshit.” – Neil Postman, 1969
Perhaps this would save us from falling for silly slogans (…21st century skills..) developed by corporate interests (…Partnership for 21st Century Skills…) devoted to selling their products to uncritical institutions.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Make connections within the details of the work of the problem, to see it through the lens of abstraction or theory, to generate one’s own questions about it, to take more active and conscious control over understanding ~ Donald Finkel (self-reflection)
July 10th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Well put, Diane. Building these 19th century skills takes a completely different direction than the trajectory that we are currently on. I would suggest the ability to look at problems (and cultures/peoples) from multiple angles/perspectives in the pursuit of solutions or understanding.
Thanks for expressing this.
July 11th, 2009 at 12:52 am
The recognition that the ability to communicate in (an)other language(s) not only opens the door to many opportunities and interests, but also demonstrates the desire to understand others and to be a world citizen as well.
Fifty years as a classroom teacher have left me very concerned for what I see as very limited educational goals for our young people, particularly in the humanities. The current wave of endless testing predominantly based on “measurable, objective” criteria is leaving many dedicated teachers unable to include valuable and life-enriching experiences which go beyond the immediate goals of building a resumé for college and career.
July 12th, 2009 at 4:30 am
[...] the time, but some of it. “ceolaf” pointed to this post by Diane Ravitch titled “The Partnership for 19th Century Skills” which eloquently makes the case that in terms of those big lessons, nothing much has [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 4:43 am
[...] the time, but some of it. “ceolaf” pointed to this post by Diane Ravitch titled “The Partnership for 19th Century Skills” which eloquently makes the case that in terms of those big lessons, nothing much has [...]
July 12th, 2009 at 4:55 am
Am I missing something? I love these skills but they could be partnership for 18th Century! 17th!. I think this is what we should have always been teaching and we need more discussion about why we do not teach these in schools not that we should!
July 12th, 2009 at 5:08 am
[...] Read entire blog post at Common Core: The Partnership for 19th Century Skills [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 11:48 am
The recognition that things are connected; that we are part of larger systems (e.g. society, economies, environment…)
Consider me a partner and thanks for the list.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
[...] Common Core » Blog Archive » The Partnership for 19th Century Skills [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
These are not 19th century skills; they’re just good skills. Except for idealism: general principles are fine only if they are actually general, and the process of establishing generality is science.
July 15th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
[...] the impact of technology on my life’s work. I found Diane Ravitch’s remarks about the Partnership for 19th Century Skills to be an amazing, cautionary statement; I get so excited about the new tools that we are studying [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
[...] book, Five Minds for the Future, and stumbling upon a blog posting by Diane Ravitch entitled “Partnership for 19th Century Skills“, it brought to my mind that there is something a little strange about labelling a set of [...]
July 24th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Quite a remarkable list of talents and attributes. Thank you. Someone mentioned Postman’s commentary about the most useful contribution of an education being encouraging the ability to distinguish useful talk and bullshit. I liked a lot, since we have to listen to so much of it, not only around education, but in our daily lives.
We might want to call these “human skills” to distinguish them from the corporate claptrap that dominates much of today’s discussion. When I listen to the MBA-babble that’s being applied to education, I think of George Orwell’s commentary on language — the use of slovenly language makes it easier for us to have silly thoughts.
August 6th, 2009 at 6:15 am
I like James comment. Instead of The Partnership for 19th Century Skills I would propose The Partnership for Human Skills.
What we are doing, learning, saying today is a speach on yesterday and the way to prepare our future.
THe 19th century was really not a paradise neither the 20st or the 21st. Beyond time, one thing is sure, we need more & more human skills to deal with the complexity of the world.
Diane’s initiative and others around the world are really usefull. Thank you
August 29th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
“a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies.” Was Wordsworth not pining for the good old 18th Century here when he was writing in the early days of the 18th? http://www.bartleby.com/39/36.html
August 29th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Whoops! He was writing in the early days of the 19th? I guess I’m getting my centuries confused.
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 am
If you are looking for 19th Century skills, you might consider:
The willingness to see your own nations interests before all others (jingoism)
An intolerance of differences (chauvinism)
A belief in the right of your superior culture to dominate others (imperialism and colonialism)
A belief in unfettered free market forces (capitalism)
A belief that the secular, when divorced from the religious, could preserve its moral focus (liberalism)
A belief that human beings are improving themselves and the world (progress)
A belief that some human beings are less human than others (slavery, colonial oppression)
Ah the good old times…..
September 8th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
[...] here September 08th 2009 | Comments(0) | Asides on 21stcenturyskills curriculum education Learning [...]
September 9th, 2009 at 8:44 am
[...] previous education talks. Instead he called on students to embrace the 19th century skills that Diane Ravitch wrote about on our blog, including responsibility and hard work. The President said, “… at the end of the day, we can [...]
September 9th, 2009 at 9:43 am
[...] previous education talks. Instead he called on students to embrace 19th century skills that Diane Ravitch wrote about on our blog, including responsibility and hard work. The President said, “… at the end of the day, we can [...]
September 17th, 2009 at 11:50 am
I first learned about so-called 21st century skills a week or so ago when a local school district wanted to spend more than $100 million dollars for a new campus designed to create an environment for delivery of 21st century skills (form follows funtion, I guess). Upon reading the list of 21st century skills, my first thought was that we need 19th century skills. A 19th century eighth grade graduate knew more, in my judgment, than many of the college students I teach. Coincidentally, today I learned of your Partnership. I’m with you on this one!
September 21st, 2009 at 5:00 am
@Tony Mcarthur (jingoism, chauvinism, etc):
Good point. But remember: Baby…. Bathwater.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:59 am
[...] the bright side, I applaud Diane Ravitch’s announcement of the Partnership for 19th Century Skills. Riff [...]
September 29th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Excellent piece!
Was MATH left out intentionally?
October 6th, 2009 at 7:38 am
[...] have dominated our colleges of education since the early twentieth century. I have elsewhere (http://blog.commoncore.org/?p=88) suggested that the schools should emphasize such 19th century skills as love of learning, the [...]
November 4th, 2009 at 6:40 am
To Diane, Common Core, and others who’ve commented: a heartfelt thank you.
This has helped me to communicate with my colleagues in engineering. Although we are “professionals” and ostensibly have attained some kind of lofty critical thinking skills, I fear we are but infants when it comes to understanding our place in the broader spectrum of humanity. We are probably at a crisis (and have been for some time). I think it can be traced to a de-emphasis on a liberal arts education.
I have written somewhat (admittely awkwardly) about it at, eg,
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=30219&discussionID=9093896&sik=1257345445970&trk=ug_qa_q&goback=%2Eana_30219_1257345445970_5_2
November 19th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
nice sharing thanks
November 25th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
The willingness to see your own nations interests before all others (jingoism)
Great list … it’s fascinating that the one negative comment brought up the word “chauvinism” – It is the chauvinism of the ‘cult of the new’ that Diane is so appropriately puncturing here. we shouldnt be so presumptive in thinking the 19th century cultural habits and aspirations were all wrong or out-of-date.
The skills of the 21st century will find leverage via new technologies, but the underlying human cognitive skills, behaviors and habits required to be successful contributors as citizens and knowledge workers will be not a whit different from Diane’s list.
Look at it this way – if you had a choice between hiring a 22-year-old College graduate who did have the “19th century skills” vs one who only had “21st century skills” which would you pick? the 19th century list is more concrete and important for an individual contributor in the workplace.
- – initiative, self-discipline, curiosity, honor (aka ethics), communication … that and the other items are vital.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:01 am
[...] approach can also tend to a romanticism of the past, such as Dr. Ravitch’s post on 19th Century Skills. While I appreciate Dr. Ravitch’s historical perspective–that many things we value and [...]
August 12th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Just wondering, didn’t we have any skills in the 20th century?