The current narrative containing the trope of get college degree-> retire, is not playing out. The employment marketplace requires people to “pay to play” with the 4 “Life Currencies“: Competency, Credentials, Connection, Cash. Stephanie Malia Krauss, a teacher turned social worker, and now author describes how we might explicitly provide and foster these 4 Currencies for our learners, in her new book ‘Making It: What Today’s Kids Need for Tomorrow’s World.’
“In education, the past 20 years have focused on academic success; the next 20 need to include social and emotional development, as well as cognitive and physical fitness.” -SMK
She emphasizes how life expectancies are going up and providing our citizens with the capacity to adaptive members of the economy throughout their longer earning lifetime (estimated @ 80 years!) will require investment into critical childhood periods. This takes a comprehensive approach to all aspects of learner’s life situation. Many schools have arbitrary “seat time” requirements rather than competency requirements. An analogy might be that we give kids a “C” in bicycle riding, then graduate them to unicycle where they fail.
Also importantly is “Cash.” I’ve talked before about universal basic income, and it’s always validating to hear how the deck can be stacked against people from the get go. Thus, if we even pretend to care about leveling out unnecessary social inequality, Cash is a flexible and powerful tool to that end.
I’m always excited to see people advancing and evidence based approach to development, it would be amazing to get to speak with Stephanie and how a this project can benefit from her insights.