Preparing our Kids for a Happy, Healthy Future

What are the skills our kids need to live resilient adult lives?

As a mom, researcher, and an educator I spend a lot of time thinking about what our kids need to know to as they grow up in this ever changing world. In other words, I just really want them to lead happy, healthy, and meaningful adult lives.

I have read books on “21st Century skills,” talked to other educators and moms, looked through journal articles in our university library, and spent a fair amount of time on google and YouTube. From what I can tell…there are a lot of opinions about the critical “21st Century Skills” but there is yet to be a consensus on what our kids will need to know. There is a particular lack of information as it relates to helping children build skills for a resilient future.

So far it seems that the following skills may be helpful:

• The Four Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity)

• Flexibility

• Tolerance for complexity and ambiguity

• Emotional regulation, specifically skills for coping with ever-changing expectations and high stress situations

• Learning- having the ability to constantly learn, unlearn, and relearn

• Developing a strong sense of identity (in order to make grounded decisions in a future that might make decisions for you)

Although these all seem necessary and interesting to think about….our current mission is to figure out what skills are truly needed, how they relate to one another, and how we help kids learn them in time to become resilient adults.

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What do you think are the most important skills for our kids to learn?