If The Antiquated School System Didn’t Teach You Anything, You Can Learn Everything You Need Online
Be a Lifelong Learner
I realized one day that the skills I had developed from high school through college were obsolete. If I didn’t improve, I would be left behind or stuck in a place where I didn’t have a choice.
I was teaching my Geometry class one day, and I noticed that I wasn’t moving forward. I knew the standard textbook content, but how does that relate to what students need today?
Something was missing in the course I was teaching; it didn’t include technology.
I had a textbook, a dry erase marker, a whiteboard, an eraser, and my notes that I used for many years. I couldn’t answer the question, “where are the students going to use the lesson in life?”
The answer was simple.
The math content skills are not applicable in the form presented.
I kept telling myself it is part of the school curriculum and must be important. I rationalized that the content I was teaching helped students directly after high school.
The reality is it was more about making sure they learn content and less about how they will use the lessons learned in high school to be successful in their life after high school.
Academies in Schools
I was in a group of teachers discussing the academy model my school is trying to transition into when I heard something that made me think and question our duty as an educational system. The speaker said, “our goal should be to think of the industries and the companies as our clients.”
The students and parents are not the clients, but the companies should be the clients. If this is true, then we are doing it all wrong.
The system we have in place will not get it done.
According to Indeed Career Guide, the twenty skills a student needs after high school is listed below.
Here are the top skills in demand a person will need to be successful in the job market today:
1. Cloud computing
2. Artificial intelligence
3. Sales leadership
4. Analysis
5. Translation
6. Mobile app development
7. People management
8. Video production
9. Audio production
10. UX design
11. SEO/SEM marketing
12. Blockchain
13. Industrial design
14. Creativity
15. Collaboration
16. Adaptability
17. Time management
18. Persuasion
19. Digital journalism
20. Animation
[1]
Having to proctor the Pre-ACT mandated test, the only skill set that the test could teach is number 17, time management. I cannot think of a core class that covers these skill sets.
Most of these skills would fall outside of the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.
Are the education leaders prepared to dismantle and rebuild the school system to address the needs of the students?
If these are the skills the students need, then we are missing the target.
I applaud the district leaders in addressing the concerns of students being career ready, but we are nowhere near where we need to be.
The school leaders are trying to address the skills sets with the wrong tools.
Thinking of the companies in industries as clients is correct, but the school system is antiquated.
Even if each teacher incorporates part of these skills in their lesson, the school system will still not meet the demands of the industries. The current teachers are not trained in the skills that industry demands of the students leaving high school.
And, here is where it scared the living daylight out of me. I have seen teachers wait for retirement and crawl across the finish line miserable and broke because they believed teaching was the only thing they could do.
They stayed in teaching because that is the only thing they knew how to do. I didn’t want to be one of those teachers.
I wanted to develop some of the skills on the list because I wanted options if I decided to leave teaching.
I didn’t want to be in a position to say, “teaching mathematics is all I know how to do.” That was a scary thought.
Several years ago, I wanted to learn new skills. My plan was to be technology literate.
Online Learning Platforms You Can Use to Teach Yourself a New Skill
I started looking at online programs that were relatively cheap and had value in their programs; the programs that I found to have value are listed below:
1. Coursera — https://www.coursera.org/
Coursera was my first venture into an online learning platform. I had recently taught myself to write in html5 and CSS, but I wanted to know how to learn the python language; I wanted to know how to code.
There are many courses on Coursera that will help you learn the skills you need or want; the prices are reasonable, and you can work at your own pace.
The first course I took in Coursera was their Google IT Support Professional Certificate. The course gave me a good foundation for the skills I needed in information technology.
2. Udemy — https://www.udemy.com/
I wanted to continue to learn the python language, and I took additional classes I found relatively inexpensive that helped me grasp the python language. I also wanted to learn copywriting and marketing skills to market my existing math workbooks on Amazon; I found some courses helpful in my learning process.
3. YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/
I searched for a python problem I was stuck on because my script wasn’t running. YouTube had the answer.
YouTube can be a resource for any subject.
Takeaway
The public school system is nowhere near addressing the demands of the clients, the companies in the various industries; it is an antiquated system.
If you are out of high school or college and want to learn a new skill, the tools for you to learn those skills are at your fingertips.
Final Thoughts
I decided several years ago that I didn’t want to be that teacher with no skills and with nowhere to go; I wanted to learn new skills to keep up with the industry demands.
You don’t have to learn the skills all at once, but in a few years, you will be surprised how far you have gone from the first day you decided to take the step of learning something new.
I have always believed in lifelong learning.
Education is only a click away.
Reference
[1] https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/in-demand-skills
Don Sabado
Teacher | Author | Writer
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