Why Basic "Reading and Writing (or Typing) Skills Aren't Enough in a Digital World

In the past, being considered "educated" meant knowing how to read and write.

Thanks to desegregation and advancements in transportation and technology, these skills became widely accessible by the mid-to-late 20th century, allowing most people in developed countries to acquire these essential abilities. However, it's time to rethink what it means to be "educated."

We're now at a point where high school graduates are entering the workforce without the necessary skills to succeed. While they may be able to read and write, the world around them has evolved, and many schools haven’t kept up.

We live in a global economy, yet students are still graduating with outdated knowledge. Basic skills like writing and arithmetic are fading away. In today's world, having just those abilities is no longer enough to be considered educated.

Students need to graduate with modern competencies, including:

• E-commerce and digital currency knowledge

• Understanding interest calculations and loans

• Awareness of online scams, predators, and schemes, along with how to avoid them and what consequences exist for those who commit them

  
  

Typing and knowing "My Dear Aunt Sally" (order of operations in math) won’t cut it anymore if students lack these critical, up-to-date skills. In the current era, not having them makes one effectively uneducated.

While schools may have updated their classrooms to include remote teaching, laptops, smart screens, and more advanced technologies, students are not graduating with the actual applied life skills needed, especially in the United States. Now, I'll agree that some Preparatory or High Schools have gotten their game on. But there still is an endemic problem.

Having interviewed people for basic jobs over the last decade, I've seen a downward spiral of skills obtained compared to the growing complexity of skills needed.

Free College to get all students an associate's or even bachelor's degree is NOT the answer.

Adjusting expectations for students coming out of high school is.

And that may mean not coddling kids and requiring them to step up and jump-start using their brains instead of fingers, using critical thinking, not letting A.I.'s create and check their homework for them, and finding and creating a sense of wonder and excitement about learning, that just is not there. If that spark and these critical skills are not instilled as students graduate from high school, we are headed for a severe shortage of capable workers.