Stem and the 4 C's

You’ve probably heard a lot lately about STEM. It’s an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math and it’s getting a lot of press because it is becoming more and more clear that jobs in these fields are booming and there are not enough qualified workers to fill them. I read an article in EdWeek recently that had some pretty interesting statistics. For example, STEM fields are expected to grow by 17% over the next decade or so, with other fields growing only 9.8%. Another interesting fact from the article was that nationwide across all employment fields, there are 3.6 people competing for every one job available, in STEM fields there is 1.9 jobs for every one applicant. This is a sector for which we need to be preparing our students. That’s all well and good if your child already has a love for all things math and science, but what if their passions lie in language arts, the humanities or some other area? You shouldn’t feel at all that those areas aren't worthwhile or that STEM can't benefit their development as learners. That’s because the heart of STEM, what employers and colleges really want to see in their students and potential employees, is proficiency in the “four C’s”—curiosity, creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. These are the skills that we all should be striving to instill in our students. If we can build our students capacities and proficiencies in these areas, we are giving them the foundations to be great creative thinkers and problems solvers—the next generation of American innovators. It’s never too early to begin placing a focus on these skills—in fact, when kids enter school they are naturally curious, creative collaborators—if you need any evidence of this, walk into any kindergarten class in Albemarle County and you’ll see it pretty quickly. Somewhere along the path to college, these natural tendencies begin to diminish—I think it’s one of our jobs to keep tapping into them and developing them for our kids. Anyway—just some food for thought for today. If you are interested in the article, you can find it at
http://bit.ly/XWszei
Check it out if you get a chance, and spend some time thinking about how we can impact our children's lives for the better with the four C’s.