Bored with "21st Century Skills"? Get Over It

I hear a lot of business people, teachers, educators -- and some edubloggers -- who are already tired of the term "21st Century Skills."  Get over it!  The term is going to be around for a long, long time. The definition? Possibly ever-evolving.

I remember when the cry of "PR is Dead" or "Your Home Page Doesn't Matter Anymore" started circling around a few years back. Folks were aghast. Arguments ensued. Egos bruised. Awareness followed.

Wait...what was that last one?  Awareness?  Yep.

Let's not get caught up on 21st Century Skills being [about] using a computer, social network, or mobile device. Two decades ago, Twitter wasn't a twinkle in our eye -- now it's everywhere.  At the end of this century, Twitter may not be a 21st Century Tool, let alone a 21st Century Skill.

I would argue that the skillset of this century -- or at least this early portion of it -- has little to do with tools and has more to do with mind and heart. Things we read in Tony Wagner's Global Achievement Gap, Angela Maiers' Classroom Habitudes, Sally Hogshead's Radical Careering, and almost everything Karen Salmansohn writes.

 - Imagination
 - Curiosity
 - Guts
 - Listening (also a 8th, 12th, 19th, 20th century skill)
 - Adaptability
 - Patience
 - Verve
 - Collaborativity (the art of collaboration?)

If the term 21st Century Skills is a slap in the face, let's wake up and see it for what it is and move forward.  Develop the skills of learning and discerning, of gleaning and teaming up, of breaking down the silos that hold us back -- for by doing these things we will breakthrough the barriers holding us stuck in whatever decade or century we're stuck in and be ready for the decades ahead.