ECONOMIC Education should enable students to become economically responsible and independent. Irs sometimes argued that education is important just in itself, and that what goes on in schools shouldn’t be affected by “exter- nal” interests, like the needs of business and the economy. This is a naive idea. Mass education has always had economic purposes, and it is perfectly reasonable that it should. That is not to say that its purposes are only economic. We'll come to the others in a moment. But there is no denying the economic importance of education for individuals, communities, and countries. Governments invest so heavily in education because they know that an educated workforce is essential for economic pros- perity. Students and their families know that too. This is why in India 80 percent of families in poverty spend up to a third of their income on education, after food and shelter. Like parents everywhere, they expect that education will help their children46 Creative Schools find work and become economically independent. I expect that too, Lean’ tell you how much I want my children to be econom- ically independent—and as soon as possible. Given how pro- foundly the world of work is changing, the question is, what sore of education do students need now to do that? Many of the jobs that current systems of education were de- | signed for are fast disappearing, Meanwhile, many new forms of work are emerging, especially from the transformative impact of digital technologies. It is almost impossible to predict what sorts of jobs today’s students will be doing in five, ten, or fifteen years, | assuming they have a job at all. “There is a lot of talk these days about the need for schools to promote “twenty-first-century skills.” The U.S.-based Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a consortium of nineteen states and thirty-three corporate partners. It promotes a broad approach to curriculum and learning that includes the following categories:? Interdisciplinary Themes + global awareness + financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy + civic literacy + health literacy + environmental literacy Learning Skills + creativity and innovation + critical thinking and problem solving * communication and collaboration Life and Career Skills + flexibility and adaptability + initiative and self-directionChanging Metaphors 7 + social and cross-cultural skills + productivity and accountability + leadership and responsibility We'll talk more about some of these as we go on. It should immediately be clear, though, that they are not uniquely “twenty- first-century skills.” Many schools and educators practiced and promoted them long before the twenty-first century got under way. They have always been important, and they are even more so now. The standards movement argues for them too, but the prac- tices it has encouraged in schools largely denies them a place. The new and uggent challenge is to provide forms of education that encourage young people to engage with the global economic is- sues of sustainability and environmental well-being—to encour- age them toward forms of economic activity that support the health and renewal of the world’s natural resources rather than to those that deplete and despoil them. To engage properly with their economic purposes, schools need to cultivate the great diversity of young people’s talents and interests; to dissolve the divisions between academic and voca- tional programs, giving equal weight to both areas of study; and to foster practical partnerships with the world of work so that young people can experience different types of working environ- ments firsthand.