citizenship

IL school examines JROTC’s positive impacts on student character, community

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Illinois’ Elgin Area School District U-46 is weighing the benefits and drawbacks of launching a Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps program, something local veterans strongly support.

“The primary goal of the program is to motivate young people to be better citizens,” Craig Essick, Elgin American Legion commander and former police officer, told the Daily Herald. “We cannot think of a better goal for U-46 students as they pursue an education and learn the true meaning of citizenship and service to our communities.”

U-46 could join several other suburban Chicago school districts that already have Air Force, Army, or Navy JROTC programs. Those programs are overseen by certified instructors and military officers who guide students to develop life skills, discipline, organization, confidence, and leadership abilities. JROTC students also learn about the military, history, international law, current events, aerodynamics and physical sciences through a variety of activities, from flying with local flying clubs to academic, marksmanship and robotics teams, according to the news site.

“There are some kids who just may not be athletes, or science club doesn’t spark them,” said Jeff Morse, a Desert Shield veteran who has taught the Navy JROTC program at Northwest Suburban High School for 24 years. “But they get into ROTC and they find something they can be good at, and it just changes them. It’s got something to offer to just about anyone with any background.”

Much of the program centers on character and service, West Aurora High School Air Force JROTC Lt. Col. Erik Pettyjohn said.

“We do have high expectations of behavior,” said Pettyjohn, who teaches aerospace science. “It offers a lot of structure. We basically use Air Force customs and traditions to instill good character, honesty, integrity, service and excellence. …

“A lot of time students won’t get that type of instruction, mentorship in other areas,” he told the Daily Herald.

Carter Bell, the retired Army major who runs Waukegan High School’s 100-year-old Army JROTC program, stressed the program’s benefit to the community. Waukegan’s 600 student cadets – the second-largest program in the nation – help with park clean ups, guide 5K races, serve at pancake breakfasts, and volunteer at parent-teacher conferences, among many other things, he said.

“The purpose of a leader is to serve others,” Bell said. “Last year, we contributed over 5,000 hours of community service to Waukegan. High school (Army) ROTC cadets contributed more than 7 million hours of community service to the nation.”

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture point to the importance of a “thick” and “dense” moral culture like the JROTC in “The Content of Their Character,” a summary of research into character education in a wide variety of schools.

Through numerous interviews and observations, researchers noted “the source and setting for moral and civic education matter – that the ‘thickness’ of cultural endowments and the ‘density’ of moral community within which those endowments find expression are significant in the formation of personal and public virtue in children.”

The U.S. Army website provides more details about the benefits of the ROTC program, and military service in general, including ways students can secure financial assistance to pursue a college degree while still in high school.

California teacher promotes civics to confront ‘selfish’ student stereotype

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Mission San Jose High School teacher Jeffery Alves wants students to focus less on themselves and more on what they can do for others.

The Fremont, California teacher learned about complaints from colleges about “selfish” students focused more on their academic achievement than civic and social issues, and crafted two courses designed to better engage students in government and their communities, the East Bay Times reports.

“I thought this would be a great course for the kids in Fremont because we really focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) a lot, and I think social sciences is kind of forgotten sometimes,” Alves told the news site.

“Civics really works to get them aware of their rights, their responsibilities, but also how to engage in civic dialogue, and how to participate, whether it’s in a company or in politics.”

The courses, implemented last school year, prompt students to take action by writing letters to the editor, creating fundraisers, and starting student clubs, among other projects aimed at advocating for others or challenging the status quo.

“That’s what we want,” Alves said. “We want active, productive, positive citizens.”

Meera Sehgal, a 14-year-old at Mission San Jose who took the class said it’s helped him “develop more as a person.”

“Mission as an atmosphere is quite competitive. Luckily, my personal family, they don’t really push me too hard, but I definitely see other kids here struggling a lot. Because the thing with immigrant parents is they try to push you to succeed a lot. I think that can be detrimental to some kids,” she said.

“If they take a class like this, which shows you that there’s more to life than just your grades, I think that can really help break out of that single focus.”

Jeff Guhin, a UCLA sociologist and researcher with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, wrote about the obsession with personal achievement in urban public schools he visited for a chapter in “The Content of Their Character,” an analysis of character education in a variety of schools.

After extensive interviews with students, teachers and administrators, as well as observations in classes, assemblies and other venues like sporting events, Guhin noted that “self-actualization was by far the most important moral idea in any of the schools, on both an aggregate and individual level.

“It represented what schools were supposed to do according to administrators and to district, state, and federal programs,” he wrote. “It was what the teachers and principals wanted for the students, and what the students themselves wanted.”

The renewed focus on civics at Mission San Jose High School is one example of how educators can successfully redirect students to focus more how they can serve others through civic participation.

The Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues offers resources, such as “A Framework for Character Education in Schools,” that can help educators bolster moral and citizenship education in their classrooms.

The Framework delves into the intersection of character and civics through a look at the psychology of moral development, the virtues of good character, and the important role teachers play in character development.

 

AR teachers recognized for connecting students to history, promoting civic engagement

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Hot Springs Arkansas Intermediate School social studies teacher Pamela Wallace takes her Declaration of Learning seriously.

The sixth-grade teacher, along with Lake Hamilton High School librarian Jil’Lana Heard, was recently recognized for dedication to the Arkansas education initive, which was created in 2013 to connect students with history and promote civic engagement.

The Sentinel-Record reports:

The program uses historic art and objects from state and national museums and libraries to develop innovative lesson plans centered around civic engagement …

Wallace said … that because of the program, students are aware of constitutional rights and ways to be contributing citizens to their communities.

Wallace and Heard, who were presented with awards from Gov. Asa Hutchinson for their efforts, were among 26 educators who took part in the 2017-18 program.

“I’m so proud of Mrs. Wallace’s accomplishment,” Hot Springs School District associate superintendent Becky Rosburg said. “She is an awesome social studies teacher and I know she will take what she learned in the program and implement it into her lessons. Her sixth-graders are going to love going to social studies class next year.”

Wallace said “the program impacted the future leaders’ views of active citizenship in the local community with each knowing that citizenship is more than voting.”

Heard, who mentored other Declaration of Learning teachers, added that helping to connect students with real artifacts from history is a rewarding experience.

“My participants took strategies learned at the summit and engaged their students into making a difference in their community,” she said. “I am thankful for the opportunity to watch these amazing educators grow.”

In his book “The Death of Character,” Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter points to esteemed sociologist Charles Moskos’ perspective on the importance of developing a shared sense of civic virtue.

“ …(A)s Charles Moskos put it, ‘because of the relative weakness of other forms of community …, our cohesion depends upon a civic ideal rather than on primordial loyalties,’” Hunter wrote. “In this way, service-learning as a vehicle of civic education can be a means by which communities are drawn together again.”

The Declaration of Learning is one of many civics programs gaining momentum in schools across the country in recent years.

The Center for Civic Education is another that offers a framework for civics called CIVITAS, which “sets forth in detail the civic knowledge, skills, dispositions, and commitments necessary for effective citizenship in the 21st century.”

The CIVITAS program was crafted with the help of nearly four dozen scholars that promotes “civic competence and responsibility among young people and encourages their participation in the political and civic life of their communities and the nation,” according to its website.

“Presented in clear, easy-to-use format, CIVITAS is a valuable resource. Major topics are civic virtue, civic participation, and civic knowledge and skills.”

 

JROTC students excel: ‘Comes with being part of something much bigger than themselves’

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Ashby Foote, city councilman in Jackson, Mississippi, is a big fan of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and for good reason.

Foote recently penned an editorial for the Clarion Ledger that offers his take on the program amid a district overhaul designed to reinvent education in Jackson Public Schools, and why he believes district officials should pursue opportunities to expand the Corp’s  influence on students.

“ … While new leadership works to reinvent and reinvigorate Jackson Public Schools (JPS), it is worth highlighting an old program within JPS that excels at the highest level – the Junior Officers’ Training Corps. In the critical metric of graduation rates, JROTC achieved 95 percent, far surpassing JPS’ 70 percent, Mississippi’s 83 percent and the national high school rate of 84 percent,” Foote wrote.

“But it doesn’t stop there. JROTC cadets also outperform in daily attendance, grade point average, ACT scores and acceptance to institutions of higher learning.”

Foote explained that JPS’ JROTC program, a staple in the district since 1936, initially started as a means of preparing young men for the possibility of war, but gradually evolved into a program with a laser like focus on citizenship, character development, and successful living after school.

The councilman contends “JROTC’s dramatic outperformance year after year doesn’t happen by chance,” and pointed to the instructors – all retired military with 20 years or more of experience – for offering students something that “goes far beyond education credentials.”

“They bring a can-do, purpose-driven culture that comes with being part of something much bigger than themselves,” Foote wrote. “They bring experiences from lives lived across the world, and in some instances, under the most adverse of conditions. And they bring organizational values including structure, ethics, discipline, accountability, mutual respect and a passion for success.”

The program also offers students “an impressive array of extracurricular programs” each summer, including camps at the Nanotoxicity Computational Chemistry Institute, National Flight Academy at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Mississippi State Engineering/Geosciences STEM Camp, William Carey Health Careers STEM camp, and the Southern Miss Computer Science/Cybersecurity Camp, among other training opportunities.

“JORTC works,” Foote wrote. “It works because it brings the right capabilities and a tough love commitment to critical tasks that are vital to the long-term future of JPS and Jackson.”

Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia point to importance of creating “thick” and “dense” moral cultures like the JROTC in “The Content of Their Character,” a summary of research into character education in a wide variety of schools.

Researchers noted that “the source and setting for moral and civic education matter – that the ‘thickness’ of cultural endowments and the ‘density’ of moral community within which those endowments find expression are significant in the formation of personal and public virtue in children.”

Educators looking to delve deeper into character formation, and the virtues promoted by JROTC, can find resources at Virtue Insight. The site is a blog by the UK’s Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues that more closely examines the virtues that support strong moral character – temperance, courage, justice, and practical wisdom – through the observations of former priest and theologian Thomas Aquinas.

Ohio student travels to France to eulogize local WWII veteran at Normandy American Cemetery

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When Springfield High School student Joshua Fox was selected to pay tribute to a soldier who died in the historic World War II D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, he didn’t have to search far to find a local hero.

The Ohio senior worked with the Normandy: Sacrifice For Freedom project through the Albert H. Small Student & Teacher Institute to honor Lucas County resident Private Jack William Runkel, a paratrooper with the U.S. Army’s 101 Airborne unit who died in action during the 1944 invasion, WTVG reports.

“Something about Private Runkel just spoke to me, that he was young kind of reminded me of how they were young men, most of them, who gave their life during this campaign,” Fox said.

The teen researched Runkel’s history and family, then traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend lectures and activities by World War II historians. Fox and his history teacher, Andrew Screptock, were among 15 teacher-student teams to participate in the Sacrifice for Freedom project, which culminated with students reading eulogies about the soldiers at their gravesites in France’s Normandy American Cemetery.

“That five minutes,” Fox said of the eulogy, “I can’t even explain it.”

“To know that I was possibly the first to memorialize him and honor him in that way was powerful to say the least,” he said. “We could all be speaking German right now if it wasn’t for these heroes. And it’s just something we all need to remember because of how important it was and what they gave up for us.”

“You know, it’s authentic,” Screptock added. “We got to get our hands dirty with history. So seeing Josh participate in that was especially gratifying.”

Researchers with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture recently analyzed character education in a wide variety of schools and published the findings in “The Content of Their Character.”

The research shows many schools, particularly rural schools, center character formation on three spheres of moral obligation: an appreciation of immigration, religious responsibility, and military service.

In rural schools, for example, students are not pressured to join the military, but rather “there was simply a clear expectation that people respect and honor those serving, those who had served, and those students thinking about joining.”

Fox’s memorial to Runkel is another prime example of how the expectation translates into something students and teachers can be proud of. The Sacrifice for Freedom project also creates role models, both in military heroes who gave their lives for freedom and students like Fox who step up to ensure their sacrifices are not forgotten.

The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues offers lessons on developing role models that explains “the positive effect that role models can have in your professional lives.”

“Inspiration can come from anywhere, but some people in our lives make a lasting contribution towards creating a better world for us and others,” according to the unit Character in the Professions: Law “These people may have inspired others through their various achievements but also their attitude and virtues.”

IT director highlights importance developing of digital citizenship in students

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Manhattan-Ogden Public Schools technology director Mike Ribble wants students to “become their best selves online” through an intentional focus on digital citizenship in schools that teaches them “to be appropriate and use technology responsibly.”

Ribble, director of technology for Manhattan-Ogden Public Schools, recently outlined for EdTech, “The Top 3 Elements of Student Digital Citizenship” that he believes students and schools can use to harness the benefits of technology and avoid potential pitfalls.

Ribble boils it down to “three simple maxims: Be safe, be savvy and be social.”

Being safe centers on educating students about the power of digital tools, how to identify threats like strangers trying to steal personal information, and the importance of alerting adults when issues arise. Schools can also highlight data privacy settings on social media, software and apps, while protecting students with a network management system and other measures that ensure a secure network.

Being savvy deals with developing deeper understanding of digital communication, including the nuances of the wide variety of digital education tools, such as Google’s G Suite for Education, cloud storage and other options, and how best to utilize the technology. Ribble wrote it’s also important to help students understand “what is true versus what may not be accurate” information online, as well as the details of making secure purchases online.

Being social involves embracing new technologies like telepresence solutions to include challenged students, “from those learning a second language to those with physical or behavioral disabilities,” according to Ribble.

“Treating others with respect and empathy are key elements of digital citizenship,” Ribble wrote. “Remember, the internet never forgets. It’s our job to teach today’s students how to manage their digital footprint. It is our responsibility to help all technology users become the best digital citizens they can be.”

Research from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia shows many parents are struggling to control technology use at home, and they’re worried about the negative influence it’s having on their kids.

“Many parents feel their attempts to control the home environment and to keep external influences at bay are nearly futile in the face of new communication and entertainment technologies,” according to the Institute’s “Culture of American Families” report.

“These technologies introduce a host of unknown and often unwelcomed influences into the private space of the home. The overriding concern is the negative influence that parents are unable to keep out,” the report continues. “Many feel helpless in the face of these technologies and uncertain about how, or if, to limit them.”

Fortunately, the UK’s The Jubilee Centre and other groups offer lessons to help parents, teachers and principals on how  to guide students to develop appropriate and healthy relationships with technology.

The Jubilee Centre lesson “Using Technology More Wisely” for example, encourages students to reflect on whether social media and mobile technology are good or bad for them personally, for their relationships and society.

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NY students interview vets, use stories to create interactive book

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Fourth graders in Pittsford, New York’s Thornell Road Elementary School are making some new friends in their community and chronicling their stories in a book about service and sacrifice.

Teacher Toni Stevens-Oliver’s class recently interviewed 23 veterans from the Rayson-Miller American Legion Post 899 to get an intimate understanding of why they joined the service and how it shaped their lives. The students then chronicled the stories in a new book called “Veteran’s Voices” – which also features an online app to view videos of the veterans in their own words, WHAM reports.

“The book was a way for us to connect one-on-one personally a student with a veteran and get to know each other through the veteran telling their story and the student writing that story,” Stevens-Oliver told the news site.

The veterans “were blown away by the interest the students showed, the respect the children showed,” she said. “We hope our book inspires people to ask their local veterans what their story is.”

Students told WHAM they learned a lot from the class project.

“Freedom isn’t free, and the veterans sacrificed a lot of things,” student James Kazacos said. “They sacrificed time with their family, holidays.”

“They are just like normal people, except that they step up and do a job that takes courage,” classmate Jake Schreyer added.

Al Herdkoltz, commander of the Rayson-Miller post, said the effort gives him hope the stories of local veterans will not be forgotten.

“They actually had an interest and they were my friends,” he said. “I felt very comfortable and at ease. I felt I had a new friendship even though there was quite a bit of age difference, they were my friends.”

Steven-Oliver shared the project on Shutterfly and posted supporting documents to her Pittsford Schools website as a template for teachers looking to pursue a similar project. The school page also features a special shout out from Sen. Rich Funke acknowledging students’ hard work.

“To take the time to not only interview our veterans, but to take those interviews and incorporate them into an interactive book was special, not just to them but to all of us who care about our veterans,” Funke said in a video message.

Researchers at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Culture stress the importance of developing a sense of responsibility for and ownership of something larger than students’ self-interests. In The Content of Their Character, researchers noted how rural schools are particularly strong at fostering connections to broader spheres of moral obligation through immigration, religion and the military.

“In addition to building greater knowledge of cultures and societies outside of the U.S.,” researchers wrote, great teachers “were aiming primarily to build social-perspective taking, empathy and general critical thinking skills.”

Much of the work centers on gratitude, and the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues offers a plethora of research on the subject, including the public’s perception of gratitude and links between the virtue and service.

“More recently, the Centre has extended its focus on gratitude by examining the effects of teaching interventions on comprehensions of gratitude and related virtues,” according to the website.

U.S. Air Force recognizes JROTC character education programs that ‘exceed standards’

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When it comes to character and citizenship education, Lamar Consolidated High School’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program “exceeds standards.”

That’s the word from the U.S. Air Force, which recognized the program and 119 others across the country “that have performed well above and beyond normal expectations, and that have distinguished themselves through outstanding service to their school and community while meeting the Air Force JROTC citizen development mission for America.”

The mission, according to the Houston Chronicle, is “to educate and train high school cadets in citizenship and life skills; promote community service; instill responsibility, character and self-discipline through character education; and to provide instruction in air and space fundamentals.”

The recognition for Unit TX-172 – which includes cadets from Lamar and George Ranch high schools – is based on a formal unit evaluation in December that pointed to the “dynamic and supportive learning environment coupled with an excellent community outreach” under the leadership of Maj. Jeffrey M. Shelton and Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey T. Moffet, the Fort Bend Independent reports.

“The instructors provide outstanding leadership in administering the cadet-centered citizenship program,” which led to cadets who “performed exceptionally well and took great pride in leading and accomplishing their unit goals,” according to the news site.

“The Lamar Consolidated High School Air Force ROTC citizenship program is making a positive impact on the cadets, the school and the community.”

According to the Air Force, “Air Force JROTC is located in close to 900 high schools across the United States and at selected schools in Europe, in the Pacific, and in Puerto Rico. Air Force JROTC enrollment includes more than 120,000 cadets who do over 1.6 million hours of community service each year.”

Lamar Consolidated JROTC’s recognition for exceeding the standard is a timely reminder of the nature of morality.

James Davison Hunter, founder of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, writes in his book the “Tragedy of Moral Education in America”:

Morality is a vision of moral goods shared by a community; the attitudes, aspirations, sensibilities, and dispositions that define its highest aspirations for itself, and how those moral goods find expression in every situation in daily life.

Virtue Insight, a blog by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues, takes a deeper look at the virtues that support strong moral character – primarily temperance, courage, justice, and practical wisdom – through the observations of priest and theologian Aquinas.

University of Chicago professor Candace Vogler explains how “living well within reason” relies on applying practical knowledge through habitual virtuous activities.

“For those of us interested in thinking about the ways that virtuous activity allows reason to effectively guide us in leading better and more fulfilling lives, work on cultivating virtuous habits just is work on learning to live wisely,” Vogler wrote.

Schools focus on civics to bridge political divides, engage students in government and community

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Civics is making a comeback in schools, sparked in part by the 2016 election.

“This town is liberal and I thought that was the way of the world,” Mamaroneck High School freshman Jacobi Kandel told The New York Times. “I totally thought Hillary was going to be the first female president. Then I woke up and said, ‘What’s going on?’”

Kandel is among dozens of students at the New York school who were inspired by the 2016 election to sign up for a new four-year program called Original Civic Research and Action, which tasks students with developing a useful solution to an ongoing problem in the community.

The initiative is part of a broader push in schools and statehouses across the country aimed at engaging students in government and service. Only Maryland and the District of Columbia require community service and civics classes for graduation, while 11 states have no civics requirement. Nine states and the District of Columbia require a full year of civics instruction, and 30 states require a half-year, the Times reports.

Experts said a laser focus on core subjects like math and English have consumed class time previously devoted to civics, and the result is reflected in the National Assessment of Educational Progress test, which showed only 18 percent of 8th graders scored at or above proficient in American History in 2014. Only 23 percent of students met the threshold for civics, according to the news site.

The disengagement seems to continue after high school, with less than half of 18- to 24-year-olds voting in the 2016 election nationwide, the lowest turnout among all age groups.

The renewed focus on civics in schools aims to both boost engagement and counter the divisive political culture. Lawmakers in several states are also considering legislation to increase civics requirements for students, in some cases with mandatory citizenship tests.

Mamaroneck High School government and history teacher Joseph Liberti told the Times he attempted unsuccessfully to launch the Original Civic Research and Action program in the past, but “launching it became much easier in 2016,” when Americans elected Donald Trump president.

“The energy was there and I was able to ride that wave,” he said.

Officials in other schools like Chicago’s Polaris Charter Academy are also helping students better understand the intersection of government and community, while encouraging them to work together and consider opposing opinions. A student-led campaign at Polaris last year focused on gun violence, and it required students to research the Constitution and Second Amendment, and work with police, lawmakers, activists and gang members, the Times reports.

“This is not just about a high school civics class. – It’s not to prepare students for tests, but to prepare them to be active, contributing citizens,” said Ron Berger, who oversees academics for Polaris’ parent company EL Education. “We’ve forgotten about that as a nation.”

In his book “The Death of Character,” Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture founder James Davison Hunter points to esteemed sociologist Charles Moskos’ perspective on the importance of developing a shared sense of civic virtue.

“… (A)s Charles Moskos put it, ‘because of the relative weakness of other forms of community …., our cohesion depends upon a civic ideal rather than on primordial loyalties.’ In this way, service-learning as a vehicle of civic education can be a means by which communities are drawn together again,” Hunter wrote.

Educators who want to bridge political divides and help students engage in their communities can find a wealth of resources through CIVITAS, a comprehensive K-12 model for civic education developed with the help of dozens of leading scholars and classroom teachers from across the country.

OECD’s Schleicher: Ethics for an Age of Acceleration

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Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

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This is the age of acceleration, a speeding-up of human experience through the impact of disruptive forces on every aspect of our lives.

It is also a time of political contestation. For the last 72 years, the wider international community has prioritized balancing the needs and interests of individuals, communities, and nations in an equitable framework based on open borders, free markets, and a sustainable future. But where the disruptive forces of these changes have brought a sense of dislocation, political forces have emerged that offer closed borders, protection of traditional jobs, and the promise to put the interests of today’s generation over those of future generations.

How should countries equip young people to understand, engage with, and shape this changing world?

In this accelerated, politicized age, we can no longer teach people for a lifetime. In this age, education needs to help students cultivate a reliable compass and other navigational tools with which they may find their own way through an increasingly complex and volatile world.

Future jobs will pair computer intelligence with human knowledge, skills, character qualities, and values. It will be our capacity for innovation, our awareness, our ethical judgement and our sense of responsibility that will equip us to harness machines to shape the world for the better.

This is the main conclusion drawn by OECD countries working on Education 2030, a new framework for curriculum design. Not surprisingly, then, schools must increasingly recognize the need for fostering ethics, character, and citizenship. They must also develop in their students a range of social and emotional skills, such as empathy, compassion, mindfulness, purposefulness, responsibility, collaboration, and self-regulation.

At the center of the Education 2030 framework, OECD countries have placed creating new value, dealing with tensions and dilemmas, and developing responsibility as desired competencies. What do these mean? And how are they connected to ethics, and to social and emotional skills?

Young people’s agency to shape the future will partly hinge on their capacity to create new value. Creating new value is a transformative competency. It refers to the processes of creating, making, bringing into being, and formulating. It imagines outcomes from these processes that are innovative, fresh, original, and contribute something of intrinsic positive worth. It suggests entrepreneurship in the broadest sense—being ready to venture, to try, without the crippling anxiety of failure. The constructs, attributes, and virtues that underpin this competency are imagination, inquisitiveness, persistence, collaboration, and self-discipline.

Dealing with tensions, dilemmas, and trade-offs will also be necessary for young people in the age to come. In a structurally imbalanced world it is necessary for them to reconcile diverse perspectives and interests in local settings that sometimes have global implications. Striking the balance between competing demands—of equity and freedom, autonomy and community, innovation and continuity, and efficiency and democratic process—will rarely lead to a simple choice or even a single solution. Individuals will need to think in a more integrated way that avoids premature conclusions and attends to interconnections. The constructs, attributes, and virtues that underpin the competence include empathy, adaptability, and trust.

The third transformative competency—developing responsibility—is a prerequisite of the other two. Dealing with novelty, change, diversity, and ambiguity assumes that individuals can “think for themselves” with a robust moral compass. Both creativity and problem-solving require the capacity to consider the future consequences of one’s actions, to evaluate risk and reward, and to accept accountability for the products of one’s work.

These, in turn, require a sense of responsibility, and also moral and intellectual maturity.  With these, people can reflect upon and evaluate their actions in the light of their experiences, their personal  and societal goals, what they have been taught and told, and what is right or wrong.

Ethics is the thoughtful perception of what is right or wrong, good or bad, in a specific situation. It asks questions related to norms, values, meanings, and limits. Central to this competency is the concept of self-regulation, in the spheres of personal, interpersonal, and social responsibility. It rests on constructs, attributes, and virtues of self-control, self-efficacy, responsibility, problem-solving, and adaptability.

The challenge for educators is not to defer these dimensions to new school subjects, but to embed them in everything that is taught and learned at school. Supporting countries in this effort is the goal of the OECD Education 2030 project.

 

©2017 Advanced Studies in Culture

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