This is another of those articles which I came across during the week and can’t for the life of me remember who sent it!

It is titled “10 years on, high-school social skills predict better earnings than test scores” and for me, it says a lot about what we need to consider as important as we try to make decisions about the sort of things we need to be exposing children to as a part of their educational experience. Once again, I am the first to admit that kids need to be able to read, write, be numerate and knowledgeable. What I think we all too often neglect is that kids also need to be taught the tools and skills of today. What I think this means is that we need to teach or support them in developing skills to connect, communicate, create and emphathise.

What would also be good would be to support them in the best use of tools that allow this to take place. I happen to think that this is the computer at the moment but I am open to the idea that it might be the mobile, the ipod or the gaming console.

I really think that we need some more articles like this one to hammer home the point to teachers and leaders that doing the best for kids is not just assisting them to maximize marks on standard test scores.

Photo: Athletic meet of Yukichi by kanonn