Preparing Our Children for the Future
As we begin to prepare our kids for the back to school rush this month, it is important that as leaders, teachers and parents, we remember how to keep our kids focused on the end goal, the path to a career. Our K-12 system has made great strides in promoting career pathways and those ever changing pathways are what will lead our children toward future financial success.
I’ve recently spoken at teacher in-service training and my message is clear— standardized testing is no indication of a child’s future success and is merely a tool to judge progress; progress tracked by many people who have never taught in a classroom. A teacher’s indication of success should be judged by a student’s success 10 years after graduation, not 10 minutes after a lesson.
Whether we are formal educators or not, we all have a responsibility to teach. We must teach our youth and provide guidance about future careers that will influence their and our community’s future. These students are our future workforce and it will be disappointing to all of us if we can’t continually see improvements over a number of years. Encourage innovation, communication and independent thought. At any age, welcome a child to challenge standard knowledge and teachings. I hate to say we have done it wrong over the course of time, but our results in developing young leaders aren’t indicative of a proven successful track record. We must change the way we think, learn and educate if we expect long term work force development results for our future.