Taylor Wallisch 1

What is the purpose (end in mind) of education in the 21st century?

Education in the 21st century is very different from education in the 20th century. Students

are required to have various skill sets in order for them to be successful in the classroom and

outside of the classroom. When designing a curriculum with the end in mind, it is essential to

examine what skills are need in order for students to be successful in the workforce. I believe the

purpose of education in the 21st century is to teach students life skills that will prepare them for

the workforce. In this paper, I will focus in on the two skills that I believe are the most important

that any teacher can teach.

The first critical skill to teach to students is how to communicate effectively with others. I

consider this one of the most important life skills because how individuals communicate with

others is one of the main skills employers look for when hiring new employees. According to

Wallis and Stepstoe, Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, is as

important as IQ for success in today's workplace. "Most innovations today involve large teams of

people," says former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine. "We have to emphasize

communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures (3).

With todays rapidly changing technology, there is less of an emphasis on communicating face to

face. Teachers should be teaching this crucial skill in the classroom or incorporating it to some

degree within the different content areas. Through doing this, teachers will ensure the success of

their students within the workforce because every job requires some type of communication with

others. Having multiple opportunities for students to communicate with one another will allow

students to become more proficient at this skill. Therefore, making them comfortable with

communicating with other people and preparing them to do so in their future jobs.
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The next skill I consider to be significant to teach students within the classroom is

personal responsibility. Students need to learn this skill because when they are adults they will be

held accountable for the actions they take and the decisions that they make. It has also been

known that many adolescents have a reputation as being inherently lazy and not wanting to take

responsibility for their actions. As a future educator, I personally do not believe this to be true.

What I consider to be true is that students can be taught how to be responsible with the proper

assistance. Wormeli states, Students are often just surviving the day, and they don't see the

value or take the time to look at the big-picture consequences of their words and actions, so we

help them. For many students, it's a trusted adult who can help them make connections between

their actions and their goals. Helping students learn how to become responsible is very

important because it is a significant skill to have within the workplace. If an individual does not

take responsibility for your actions at work, this could ultimately get him or her fired. It is

essential to emphasize this skill in the classroom now, so students can learn and practice

responsibility. Students can then accomplish the end in mind goal which is to become

responsible before entering the workforce.

When teaching these two skills of communication and personal responsibility. It is best

not to teach it explicitly, rather integrating it within the content being taught. The article Results

That Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform maintains, Good teachers have always

incorporated life skills into their pedagogy. The challenge today is to incorporate these essential

skills into schools deliberately, strategically, and broadly (11). The beauty about including these

skills into the curriculum, students do not even realize they are practicing these skills. When I am

a teacher I will be sure to incorporate life skills into my curriculum and develop a plan for it.

Students will be required to communicate with one another when working together on
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assignments, projects and homework within my classroom. They will also be held responsible

for meeting their deadlines, doing their work in group projects, and showing up to class on time.

Students will also be given multiple opportunities to practice these skills so they can obtain these

skills well before they graduate from high school.

Todays society is ever changing and students are required to have a different type of

skill set than they did in the 20th century. In the 21st century, more employers seek out the life

skills that individuals possess such as being able to communicate effectively with others and

taking personal responsibility for their actions. As a result, I believe the purpose of education in

the 21st century is to teach the two most important life skills of communication and personal

responsibility in order to achieve the end in mind goal: students being successful in the

workforce and in life as a whole.

How does middle school fit into the overall end in mind?

Middle school fits perfectly into the overall end in mind. Middle school is that awkward

stage for adolescents where they are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be in

society. This is the perfect time to provide students with the tools they will need to be successful

in life and in the workforce. It is also the perfect time to be teaching life skills such as

communication and personal responsibility. Middle school focuses on providing students with

the necessary skills they will need to have in an actual job. It is a time to shape students into the

person they are going to become later in life. Therefore, middle school is a big support system

for the overall end in mind.

In my field experience at Winona Middle School, I have had the opportunity to work with

my cooperating teacher, Stacy Gobler, who teaches 7th grade special education. I had the chance

to interview her and I got to ask her how the middle school supports the overall end in mind. In
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my personal opinion, I believe communication is a key life skill students need to have, so I asked

her, How does the middle school teach communication skills? Mrs. Gobler described to me,

Depending upon what the activity is, students work in groups to work on their communication

skills. This can vary from a classroom discussion, to reading books in smalls groups, to reading

books together. What we emphasize at the middle school is that all voices are heard (10

February 2017). At the middle school, there is a huge focus on working together to complete

activities. Students will work together on homework assignments or engage with one another in a

discussion. In the classroom, the teacher is a facilitator in the classroom to ensure discussions

stay appropriate and to make sure students are communicating effectively. This provides them

with practice to use their communication skills that they are going to need in life and in the

workforce.

I also wanted to know if the middle school evaluates this critical skill, so the next

question I asked Stacey was, Does the middle school assess communication skills? She stated,

There are rubrics for how well the students worked together on a project. They get to grade

themselves and divide the points based on who did what work (10 February 2017). Stacey also

described to me how one day a student could not be in class because she had a prior commitment

to a choir practice that day. Her students still decided to give the girl points because she

communicated with them that she could not be there that day to work on the project (10 February

2017). Through using these rubrics, it gives students the opportunity to think critically about

themselves and what their role was in working together. In the example Stacy provided me with,

it shows just how well teaching communication skills is working within Winona Middle School.

This is going to help out these students later in life if they are ever put in a similar situation at

their future jobs.

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The next skill I wanted to know more about how Winona Middle School incorporates it

into their curriculum is responsibility. I asked Mrs. Gobler, How do you teach students how to

be responsible in the classroom? Stacey responded by saying, This looks very different for

each student. It depends upon what type of skill set they have and if their home life teaches them

how to be responsible. If there home life does not teach this, we have to provide additional

support to that particular student. What we do teach all students here is how to manage your time

wisely, work ethic, and perseverance (10 February 2017). In the Winona Middle School, they

provide multiple opportunities for students to learn how to be responsible. When I was observing

in the special education classroom, I wrote in my notes, The teachers emphasize personal

responsibility with their students. They explicitly state that it is the students responsibility to do

their work and to turn in their assignments. If they do not get something done or do not have

notes written down that falls on them. They are also very encouraging and supportive of teaching

students how to be responsible (10 February 2017). Seeing this in the classroom showed me just

how much the teachers support their students taking on their own responsibilities. Winona

Middle School provides students with the necessary skills in order to be successful in the

workforce through focusing in on responsibility.

Middle school is the perfect age to shape adolescents into the person that they are going

to become in society and in the workforce. In addition, it is also a great place to teach students

life skills such as how to communicate effectively with one another and how to be held

personally responsible for their actions. Middle school supports the overall end in mind by

teaching students these life skills in order for them to be successful in life after they finish

school.
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Works Cited

Gobler, Stacey. Personal Interview. 10 February 2017.

Observation. 10 February 2017.

Results That Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform. Partnership for 21st Century

Skills. 2016. pp. 2-24. PDF.

Wallis, Claudia, and Sonja Stepstoe. How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century. Time.

Time Inc., 09 Dec. 2006. pp. 1-7. PDF.

Wormeli, Rick. Teaching Students Responsibility. AMSLE-Association for Middle Level

Education. May 2016. Web. 13 February 2017.