So, I'm laying in bed last night thinking about teaching, big surprise, and a thought struck me. The connections I can help kids make between what we read and their own lives count as 21st century skills, right? Or at least they could.
Here is why I ask. When it came to light that Romeo is 16 and Juliet is two weeks from being 14, they were shocked, dumbfounded, silent. Then one kid manages to raise his jaw from the floor and he said, "But that's how old we are." Yes, yes it is.
Do these connections, these realizations that what's happening in a book could happen to someone like them count in the 21st century skills department. I argue that those connections and realizations have the potential to teach empathy, which I also argue is seriously lacking in today's society.
Yes, this is what I think about in bed at night. Have I totally lost it yet? I don't think so.
We'll see
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