On June 11, 2009, as Red Oaks students, families and friends gathered at Drew University to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2008-09 school year, I was headed to Washington, D.C. to attend the annual conference of the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills.  Sorry to miss our culminating end-of-year event, with its poignant celebration of authentic student growth, it turned out that despite the physical separation of miles, my time in D.C. left me feeling very much at home.   And here’s why.

The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, or P21 for short, is a collaborative of interest groups focused on one central mission:

 To serve as a catalyst to position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education by building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders.

 P21 now defines itself as a “movement,”  born out of the frustrations of leading U.S. technology companies like Apple, Intel, Dell and others, who were finding that prospective employees, young and fresh out of school, were not arriving at their doors with the right kinds of skills to advance the success of their businesses.  They recognized then, that the American educational system (which has operated in essentially the same way for decades) needed to change.  And so we have today, in P21, a movement to reform American education so that children will be equipped for success in the 21^st century.

What are these new skills, lacking in so many young adults, that will equip us to compete in the 21^st century?  That was a question posed by Ray Suarez (of the McNeil Leher News Hour) who moderated two spirited panel discussions at the conference.

 “Above all else, we need people who can think,” said Lydia Logan of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

 “Innovation,” was emphasized by Emily DeRocco of the National Association of Manufacturers.

 “We need people who can work independently,” said Patrick Gaston, President of the Verizon Foundation.

These were the themes that returned over and over again as national business, education and policy thought leaders discussed the future of work and education in America.   They emphasized the critical need to integrate “authentic learning experiences” into our nation’s schools, citing examples like a student-founded and run credit union that now operates in one high school; or the interdisciplinary project that evolved from a real fender bender in a teacher parking lot.  The collision ignited the idea of transforming what would have been a traditional math lesson (i.e., simply calculating the area of the parking lot by measuring its perimeter) into a multidimensional planning project focused on redesigning the entire lot to minimize the chances of accidents in the future.   Tony Wagner of the Harvard School of Education introduced a cross-cultural perspective, citing the positive outcomes in Finland where teachers are given the opportunity to collaborate with each other to develop learning experiences that are student-centered.   And student participants from nearby Fairfax High School talked about the teacher qualities that motivate them to learn, first among them being the presence of a genuine relationship of mutual respect and compassion.

The more I sat there and listened to these speakers, the more I realized that although I was miles away from my school in Morristown, intellectually and philosophically, I was very much home.  Because at Red Oaks, we are already doing the kinds of things that these progressive thinkers and leaders were advocating.  Thanks to the prescience of Dr. Maria Montessori, the leadership of Marilyn Stewart and the unmatched commitment and talents of our faculty, we are cultivating independent, creative, thinkers and problem-solvers here at Red Oaks, starting at age 3 and all the way up to 6^th grade!  Every day our students are challenged to think about how to solve problems, to strategize, to collaborate, to innovate.  From the Primary Tea to Zoo Crew to Model UN, the nexus of the learning process sits squarely with our students.  It is they, who ask the questions and then find the answers. It is they, the students, who discover truths and wrestle with ideas.  It is they, who forge new solutions and pour forth their creativity to solve mathematical, technical, social, scientific and other kinds of problems.  Yes, the students at Red Oaks are very much engaged in a 21^st century educational process. 

As I left Washington, D.C., energized and intrigued by all I heard, I left with the reassurance of knowing that at Red Oaks, we are a standard-setter.  But the best part is that we also know we cannot stand still.  Education is a dynamic undertaking.  And so we follow the research, engage with groups like P21, take some risks and continue to grow.  The introduction of Singapore Math, the enhanced Upper El technology curriculum and our expanded focus on health and wellness are all examples of that.  That’s the Red Oaks education that we all know and love!

If you would like to learn more about the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills and the annual conference, please visit www.21stcenturyskills.org.