Looking into the Future

How do you know if you’re learning the right things now for a good future? You don’t, well not very well. While reading “Rigor Redefined” by, Tony Wagner, I learned some important things that could help every person out there to be prepared for a 21st century future. Tony interviewed hundreds of business and educational leaders around the U.S. asking them questions on what skills they are looking for in young people. He was shocked by the responses he got. Instead of them looking for skill and knowledge of the job, they were looking for people who could think. Not just any kind of thinking but how to ask questions and how to get involved in the thinking of the job the skill they have. There are seven ‘survival’ skills for the 21st century that are key to getting through it successfully. 1.) Critical thinking and problem solving. 2.) Collaboration and Leadership. 3.) Agility and Adaptability. 4.) Initiative and Entrepreneurialism. 5.) Effective oral and written communication. 6.) Accessing and analyzing information. 7.) Curiosity and imagination. A senior executive from said that “Yesterday’s answers won’t solve today’s problems.” I agree very much with him. Every day is a new beginning and it takes new knowledge to accomplish things. That is very important when it comes to critical thinking. You have to use your brain and your knowledge to think through things. Teamwork is also very important today. You have to be able to work with people from all around the world even if you don’t believe the same things they do. You have to solve things together and work things out the right way. Being flexible is also very important. You need to be able to move around and solve different problems whether you’re used to it or not. My connection with that is cheerleading. If something goes wrong, you need to be able to move around at the last minute and not think so much of yourself, but more of your team, in this case your company and colleges. Today, we have so much to learn that maybe it’s too much to learn. You need to be able to take things one step at a time. For instance, you can’t take Spanish 2 without taking Spanish 1 first. If you don’t, you will be frozen in your path and won’t know what to do. In one of Tony’s researches, he viewed an AP Chemistry class. They were doing a lab will mixing chemicals into a beaker. One of the groups experiment went wrong. He asked them what their hypothesis was. They had no answer. Make take on this is that we are not learning how to solve or mistakes. We don’t know how to figure out what we did wrong and we are not being taught the proper things necessary for problem solving in life. If we could learn that and add it to the seven steps above, I think 21st century students will be some of the smartest we have yet.

Trick or Treat??!!!

Some pranks people do may be funny. But what happened to a home in the town of Sioux City, Iowa wasn’t so nice. Usually when you find a dead animal you leave it alone, but some “funny” pranksters decided to put a dead deer in a clown costume (complete with outfit and wig) and leave it on some families porch. Police thought this was a Halloween prank because it is just around the corner, but it was unsafe, immature, and illegal. The pranksters have not been found yet. This article “Dead deer in clown suit left on Iowa porch” by MSNBC struck me and made me think. What would lead someone into thinking that this was funny? Why would they do something like that? Did they have a grudge against this family? Why? Usually when people do stuff to other people, they don’t think about that person. They don’t know what they have been through that day or what is happening in their lives. When these pranksters did that to the Iowa family, did they think about what they felt like? Do they regret what they did to that poor family? My response to that would be inconclusive. Some people have a conscience and some don’t. But I hope the people that do, use it well and realize that what they did was wrong. My advice, just don’t prank people if you don’t want to hurt them in the long run and to make the right choices. If you do that then maybe a dead carcass wont be left on your porch saying trick or treat. Because if you don’t odds are, you’ll only be tricked and wont be left with such a good treat.

Sight For Soar Eyes

College sports games are fun places to watch a good football, interact with friends, and just have a good time. Well that’s what the viewers of the CU vs. CSU football game got to do. They also maybe got a little more than they bargained for. In the article "CU-CSU Streaker Susspended" by The Denver Post, a reagular football game turned into something differnt. As this game was just starting half time, Mason Lacy, a CU student, decided to mix up the fun by streaking in front of the entire crowd. The police soon arrested him and his two cheeks (if you know what I mean!). When I read this all I could think of was “What an idiot!” and “He must be one of college partiers.” The question came to me if I would ever do this. My response, only if that were my last day to live or I got paid a million dollars. But if I got caught I would probably need that money for my bail. What I’m trying to say is, don’t go streaking in front of thousands of people unless you have the money to get out of jail, don’t mind missing a semester of college, an can take the public humiliation.