Twenty first century workers will have to contend with the reality that there are smart, accomplished people all over the world that can transmit their knowledge instantly anywhere in the world. While your kid will need to have a solid intellectual foundation, they will also need skill sets that can’t be outsourced to workers other countries; skills that can only …
Parenting Teens for the 21st Century Work Place: Continuous Learning
By some accounts, digital information doubles every 18 months. That would make the amount of digital information currently available be at around 3 x 1021 (that is 3 with 21 zeroes after it). And growing. That’s a lot of information. It is no longer sufficient to establish a basic knowledge set that will carry you through the end of your …
Self Confidence and Body Language
Self confidence is an important quality to cultivate in your kid. It is associated with better grades, more satisfying personal relationships, better decision making, greater self-control and general assertiveness. (It can also keep your kid from being mugged.) Self confidence is derived from skills and competencies, experiences, treatment by others and the nature and frequency of successes and failures. But, …
Preparing Teens for the 21st Century Work Place: Project Management
Jobs in which workers are responsible for discrete, repetitive and isolated (assembly line) tasks are disappearing in the 21st century work environment. In all levels of employment, workers have to accomplish multi-step tasks toward the completion of complex projects. In this environment, your kid’s ability to plan, coordinate and bring to completion complex projects will give them a decided advantage. …
Preparing Teens for the 21st Century Work Place: Leading by Influence
Traditional top down leadership (sometimes called bossing people around) works best in (and perpetuates) a static economy. The rapidly changing economic forces of the 21st century along with the increasingly collaborative nature of 21st century work environments are not well suited for this kind of leadership style. Instead, your kid will need to be familiar with and (ideally) practiced in …
Preparing Teens for the 21st Century Work Place: Saving Grace
Timeless universal values represented by an employee’s integrity will serve to distinguish them in an increasingly personal work environment. Curiously (and, maybe tellingly) discussions of important 21st Century work skills do not reference employees integrity (or the morals, ethics, values and character that compose it) as one of those important skills. And yet, without integrity (and a culture of integrity), …
Cyber Citizenship Part 4: Respect
As citizens of the cyber community, teenagers have a responsibility to be aware of the different aspects of the cyber world (see previous column). It is also important for them to know about how to keep themselves safe and secure online (see other previous column). Finally, teenagers have a responsibility as cyber citizens to respect the laws of the online …
Cyber Citizenship Part 3: Cyber Safety
The cyber world has risks and dangers just like the real world. It would not be safe for your kid to walk alone late at night to a high crime neighborhood asking strangers where to pay cash for an expensive video game system. What if your kid then gave your house key to a stranger who offered to help and …
Sexting Part 7: What To DO If Your Kid has Sexted (part 2)
This article is the seventh and final column in the series on how parents can address the issue of sexting with their teenage children. It is the continuation of suggestions begun in Part 6 on what to do if you discover your kid has sexted. Inform the parents of the co-sextee. While you are not responsible for determining what is …
Sexting Part 6: What to DO if your kid has sexted (part 1)
This article is the sixth in a series on how parents can address the issue of sexting with their teenage children (because, apparently, there is never enough to say about this topic). The first part of this series emphasized the importance of educating yourself as a parent and talking to your kids about sexting as well as internet and social …