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There's a little problem with trying to prepare students for the future: None of us has any idea what that future will be. Prognosticators are famous for getting it all wrong, as in the now-infamous failure of industry giants to predict the popularity of personal computers.

Nevertheless, it is safe to say there are certain basic skills that are unlikely to go out of style and we would do well to be sure our students acquire them. In many ways, we're failing to do that. These are some of the things we need to work on:

1) Students need oral and written communication skills. With the popularity of video games and television, teachers and parents often fight a losing battle to teach language skills. Unfortunately, the need for these skills will never go away. Much of what appears in email and on internet postings is virtually unintelligible because an entire generation is losing the ability to communicate clearly. Encouraging appreciation for the written word and the proper use of language is more important than ever.

2) Students need mathematical and non-verbal thinking skills. With technology growing ever more complex, it is harder and harder to survive without these abilities. Americans do a poor job of educating students in these areas, with the result that we often face shortages in fields where these skills are in demand.

3) Students need to learn how to think critically. This means being able to question what they read and hear, and evaluate the truth of what they're told. Failure to teach this skill will leave us with a generation of robots who are unable to meet society's needs.

4) Students need to learn to think divergently. The world's problems require fresh ideas and creative solutions, but schools often do a very poor job of teaching this type of thinking. Rote memorization and excessively rigid rules discourage students from finding new solutions to old problems.

5) Students need to learn tolerance for other people and respect for their points of view. Social skills may be the most vital of all for creating a better world for our children and grandchildren, but schools tend to do very little to teach these skills.

6) Students need to learn to find meaning in their existence. While public schools should not be in the business of indoctrinating students in any particular religious dogma, we do them a disservice when we fail to teach them about the answers various religions have found to the biggest questions of existence. Schools have become so afraid of offending that they tend to leave religion out of their teaching altogether. This is a grave mistake, because it is impossible to understand history or culture without understanding the religious impulses that motivated and continue to motivate people's behavior.

Today's schools do a poor job of teaching many of these basic skills, and there is definitely room for improvement. We need to reward innovative teachers and first-class schools that succeed in accomplishing these goals, so they can serve as a model for all educators.

Learn more about this author, Emily Wickersham.
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