Four Things Every Student Should Learn...But Not Every School is Teaching

Four Things Every Student Should Learn...But Not Every School is Teaching covers what Alan November feels schools are missing out on when they educate their students.

#1 Global Empathy - He asked an investment bank executive what he feels is the most important skill all students need to be able to succeed. The executive stated that since companies do business with people from all over the world, the workforce needs to respect different cultures and perspectives. He says that finding intelligent people is not hard to do, but finding people sensitive to others is more of a challenge.

#2 Social and Ethical Responsibility on the Web - November addresses the need to teach online responsibility. He doesn't feel that blocking kids from social tools is the solution. Teachers need to talk about topics such as cyber bullying and sexting.

#3 The Permanence of Information posted online - I thought it was surprising to hear that the web is archived every few days, and that students need to be very careful about what they post.

#4 Critical Thinking About the Information Found Online - It was interesting to hear how google ranks its search results. He says that it's a popularity contest and students miss out by not looking at some of the sites that do not appear in the top.

November makes great points in this article. I think it is important for schools to address these topics, but I think parents should also be on board. Schools work hard to monitor what students are doing on the web during the school day. However, at night it can be a free-for-all. It is eye-opening that the web is archived every few days. This conversation about ethics from teachers and reinforced by parents is critical since like November states, we could be saving them from ruining their lives.