Your list of essential skills?

Life Hack lists 10 Skills You Need to Succeed at Almost Anything. Thanks to Mike Curtain at Connecting the Dots for the link. The author, Dustin Wax, describes these skills as:

...general skills that will help anyone get ahead in practically any field, from running a company to running a gardening club. Of course, there are skills specific to each field as well – but my concern here is with the skills that translate across disciplines, the ones that can be learned by anyone in any position.

It's hard to argue with his list:

1. Public Speaking
2. Writing
3. Self-Management
4. Networking
5. Critical Thinking
6. Decision-Making
7. Math
8. Research
9. Relaxation
10. Basic Accounting

Wait, basic accounting?

Imagine this. You have been granted the genie's wish and can give your children or grandchildren ten skills with just the wave of a magic camel (or whatever). Would basic accounting stay on your list?

These are the skills with which I would magically imbue my grandsons were I to rub a lamp just the right way:

1. Empathy
2. Communications (especially visual and aural communications for a post-literate world)
3. Integrity
4. Balance (In work, politics, life in general)
5. Creativity
   
6. Delayed gratification and tenacity
7. Joy in problem-solving
8. Passion (for a subject)
9. BS literacy
10. Optimism/confidence

OK, maybe I cheated a little on 6 and 10. And one might argue that these aren't skills as much as they are dispositions, habits of mind or attitudes.

What I find all these things have in common is that while they are learned, I am not sure they can actually be taught.  And they trump the rather pedestrian list of skills from Life Hack.

Does your classroom or library worry about the list of skills I want MY grandsons' to master?

I hesitate to start a meme, but I'd love to read the what others view as essential skills... Especially, what deep thinkers

Miguel Guhlin
Paul Cornies
Pete Reilly

might have on their list of essential skills needed to succeed at anything...

Oh, for those of us living in Minnesota, I might add:

• Jump starting a car
• Doing the Chicken Polka
• Skinning a bullhead

No you don't HAVE to know these skills, but it sure makes life easier.

Comments

[Kelly S.]

I like your list. Personally I think basic accounting IS essential since I have been trying to teach my own 17 year old son the value of balancing one's checkbook. Maybe he would listen if it was one of his AP teachers teaching him instead of his mom. Seriously though, I would like to believe that what I do, how I manage our library and how I teach inspires students to be creative, find joy and passion in something that interests them and helps them enjoy learning. One thing that is not on your list that I try to teach is tolerance. Our school is very ethnically and economically diverse and as a staff we have tried to make tolerance a priority with our students. Through our actions, lessons, and resources I have added to the library, we try to find ways to celebrate our differences.

[Stephen Downes]

I of course offered my own list about a year ago. http://www.downes.ca/post/38502

[Cindy]

I suggest you visit http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/. Many of those skills are part of the movement to recognize and teach these skills in school! Great Blog!

[John Pederson]

I was crushed to not be listed in /big thinkers, but I think I may qualify under /minnesotans.

Way to be inclusive.

:o)

[Paul C]

Hi Doug,
I personally find myself between the shallow and deep end of the pool - the monkey in the middle?

Thanks for the challenge; I just submitted my Top Ten Essential Skills at my site.

[Miguel Guhlin]

Doug, gee, thanks! Here's my list:
http://tinyurl.com/6rkcdc

I've continued the meme and tagged folks I've never tagged before.

Miguel

[pete reilly]

Doug,

Thanks for the post. Here is my list:

htttp://preilly.wordpress.com

pete

[Linda Fox]

Today's headlines announce that the mortgage mess is just going to get worse. Basic accounting? Yeah, man! Maybe if we'd done more of that the past 20 years in schools, we wouldn't be seeing so much disaster in the housing world. OK - I know I'm dating myself here but, when I went to schools there was a required class called consumer economics. Not for nothin' but I seem to be managing my own debt etc.
Oh and yes - I agree with both lists! Gotta run! Time for my relaxation class! :)

[Ron Rivera]

I like your list. Personally I think basic accounting IS essential since I have been trying to teach my own 17 year old son the value of balancing one's checkbook. Maybe he would listen if it was one of his AP teachers teaching him instead of his mom. Seriously though, I would like to believe that what I do, how I manage our library and how I teach inspires students to be creative, find joy and passion in something that interests them and helps them enjoy learning.

[Chet Swearingen]

And how do we fit "relaxation" into that list?

[Mike]

Thanks for the link, Doug. I followed up my original note with my own list of 10 essential skills

[Maureen]

I like your list better. Integrity--what a concept! Someone asked about relaxation, but I think that's part of balance. Dustin's list includes things that probably CAN be taught; yours are more inherent, but I think they, too can be learned, bit by bit, by watching the right models. With luck, all kids have teachers, parents or other adults in their lives that live these ideals. Empathy and creativity can be developed; passion is caught and nurtured. If we go back to the Habits of Mind, I think they covered a lot. Those do not go out of style.Perhaps they've been repackaged and renamed, but they are still valid.

[ken]

will you allow more than the 3 esoterics you identify to tackle the question and proffer some answers?

me, a little mind, would like to try.

[Janice]

I don't have an entire list but I think resilience - being able to bounce back from whatever gets thrown at you... being able to get up and try again after you've failed half a dozen times... being able to think of another solution after your boss has said no that won't work to your first ten ideas... I think resilience goes a long way.
I also think desire to know things (kind of like curiosity combined with interest) - which might be what you're calling passion - is also a biggie. I've encountered a few students in my twenty plus years of teaching who were really hard to hook into learning because they seemed so uninterested in everything. I was tempted to give them an electric shock just for the surprise of seeing them actually react to something!

I also agree with you that these things are INCREDIBLY hard to teach. Even if you identify a student who seems to be severely lacking in one of those skills.... it's really hard to "teach" them to be (for example) empathetic. You can model it... you can ask questions such as "How would you feel if...) but you can't really teach someone those skills. WISH I COULD!!!

Janice

[Sally M]

Doug,
Maybe it is embedded in the others but sense of humor is really in my top five. If you can't laugh at yourself and well-situations, it really is all for naught. It also smooths the way, difficult situations and um, people.. I know you practice this so perhaps it is embedded in confidence or joy. But I do take exception in Joy in problem solving. How about just plain old joy? That is perhaps a component of passion and optimism but joy--even watered down joy as cheerfulness it a key. Another one is just letting go---perhaps that is a foundation of balance. the old prayer. let go let go let God is where my letting go resides. But Joy and letting go are difficult to maintain, So I added another, consistency. Perhaps you see it in tenacity.
I enjoyed the list and a moment or two to reflect. Perhaps that is another one to add. The ability to be reflective-- honest not harsh with ourselves but reflecting and then turning it into wisdom.
Sense of humor
Joy basic cheerfulness
letting go or perhaps having the long view
Consistency

add resiliency from Janice --good one.
-Sally

[Ron Rivera]

One thing that is not on your list that I try to teach is tolerance. Our school is very ethnically and economically diverse and as a staff we have tried to make tolerance a priority with our students. Through our actions, lessons, and resources I have added to the library, we try to find ways to celebrate our differences.

[doyle]

Ah, the magic of "Top Ten" lists....

I'd add two things to the list--a dozen carries as much magic as ten, though neither is easily summarized in a word.

1) Critical perception: the ability to see, to taste, or to use any of our senses can be honed and altered by our view of the world. I have a friend in California who grew up elsewhere. For years he was unaware of the tarantulas, until a friend pointed them out--now during tarantula season his backyard teems with critters he could not see before. I teach high school science--while I work hard to help students get a decent grip on the state mandated content, my deeper desire is to have them see the universe more clearly.

2) Self knowledge ("Know thyself"): too many people do not know what they want. Wanting money or power only begs the question. Ambition without self awareness leads to bad consequences.

I just stumbled upon your site--glad I did!