The Uncommon Core

Will Richardson, an education and technology blogger whose work I’ve been enjoying for years, has proposed a set of learning objectives he calls the “uncommon core” — that is, things all kids (all of us, perhaps, not just kids) should be learning. I love this list, and recommend his entire post:

• Living softly on the Earth (Our global impacts.)
• Gender equality equity (Note #2) (With a particular emphasis on the objectification and sexualization of young girls and women.)
• Developing expertise (Understanding what it means to go deep intellectually)
• Public participation (Both online and off)
• Managing, analyzing, synthesizing and sharing multiple streams of simultaneous information (Thank you NCTE)
• Physical fitness and health (Real fitness. Real health.)
• Consumerism and finance (Understanding the systems of money)
• Networked online learning (And all that goes with that)
• Reputation management/becoming a trusted source/online safety
• Participating in a democracy (Online and off)
• Embracing and learning through change (Too much of schools is about stagnation.) (Added after original posting.)
• Embracing diversity (Our changing cultural influences)
• Problem solving and programming solutions </ul> </p>

  He also references Seymour Paper's 8 big ideas of constructivist learning, another list I believe in.