What do you want your students to be doing 20 years from now?

You've heard the simile: Like drinking from a firehose. Well that's what it's like as I open up to the various sources of news, information, and ideas about student success, assessment, general/liberal education, and related topics. Case in point: Below are excerpts from a recent post on a blog I've just discovered: Tomorrow's Professor.

What does it mean to be literate? Different disciplines appear to require their own definition of literacy. Scientific literacy, mathematical literacy, computer literacy, cultural literacy, and music literacy are just a few of its many forms. Literacy certainly varies from one discipline to another, or does it?

Long ago, young children played beside their parents. They watched adults tending crops, making arrows, governing the community, or completing other tasks. Through play and daily observations, children learned about adult roles. Adults who learned to fill these roles were probably considered literate in their societies. The roles they had to fill were those of lifelong learners, productive workers, active citizens, and able mentors, parents, and role models for the next generation.

Today, children amass large quantities of isolated skills and knowledge with the hope they will be able apply these when they become adults. They learn to a large extent in the absence of viewing adults participating in more than one or two roles.
Are today's children any more literate and prepared to face the challenges of adult roles than the children of the past? Do we equip the children of today with the skills and knowledge to be literate citizens of the 21st century?

Over the course of more than thirty years, I have asked a wide variety of educators in the United States this question: What do you want the students you are teaching today to be doing 20 years from now? As I reviewed the answers, I began to see a pattern. The roles educators envision for their students are similar to those of the past; that is, lifelong learners, productive workers, active citizens, and able mentors.

People who fill these roles need the basic skills of reading, writing, mathematics, understanding scientific proof, and working with people. In addition, they must know how to learn, solve problems, make informed decisions, and support the learning of others.

And now, for the rest of the story...