Skills vs. Facts: Preparing Students for Today's Society

There is a lot to consider when we ask the question "what do students need to know to become productive members of today's society?". Our society has been developing and changing at a rapid pace therefore so is the information student need to know. In Dan Brown's video "An Open Letter to Educators", he brings up some very valuable and note worthy points that as future educators we should be aware of. One of which being that in a growing technologically dependent world, teachers need to make appropriate changes to their teaching, lessons, and assignments.

His main argument about skills verse facts, and that we should be teaching skills is completely logical. He argues that in a world were facts are know to everyone and anyone via the internet, there shouldn't be as much of an emphasis on remembering the facts that are accessible virtually anytime and anywhere. Instead teachers need to be focusing on teaching students skills that can be applicable to a variety of situations. I agree one hundred and ten percent with this point. Even while I was growing up and in school, I was never able to believe that I would need to know how to solve some complex algebraic equation in my every day life. Today if I did find myself needing to know how to solve such an equation I wouldn't hesitate to look it up on line, or find a tutorial on YouTube. Teachers need to be prepared for their student to do the same thing and what good is twelve years of schooling if all the students are going to do is look up everything online? Teachers need to focus on building a students problem solving skills and creative thinking. Yes, these lessons are embedded into every subject, but I think that teachers are still emphasizing too much on correct answers oppose to how students reach their answer. Assessments don't have to be so cut and dry. There should be room for students to explain how they got to a certain place or defend themselves in a paper. When these students get into the work world they will be more successful if they can find a faster/cheaper/better way to get something done instead of just getting it done the same way it has been for the past 20 years. Business can't grow and expand without creative and inventive people working for them.

That brings me to my final point. The need for creative individuals is why art education is so important in schools today. Unfortunately too many people believe that art classes are just about drawing and painting and maybe some art history. However, a comprehensive art education is about much more then learning how to draw. A real art education, teaches students problem solving and how to work through the creative process. In art students aren't taught one way to complete a task, instead they are encouraged to find new ways to communicate their ideas, and how to answer questions visually. In short, art teaches students to enhance their own creativity and apply it in their everyday life.