essential skills

I was rereading an old gem from Stephen's Web and thought of you. Here is his list of Things You Really Need to Learn:
1. How to predict consequences
2. How to read
3. How to distinguish truth from fiction
4. How to empathize
5. How to be creative
6. How to communicate clearly
7. How to learn
8. How to stay healthy
9. How to value yourself
10. How to live meaningfully

What do you think? I think that most literacy workers and literacy learners carry personal what-I-need-to-learn lists in their heads. No matter what crazy matrix with no matter what crazy combination of 'essential' skills and IALS levels and outcomes and transition pathways and prescriptions and goals our funders like us to refer to and tell us will lead to success, we all have our own list of skills that are essential to us--lists that probably change from time to time, as our circumstances change and as we learn things.

And part of the poetry that literacy teachers do is to figure out each learners' list, teach to each list even though each learner has a slightly different list, adapt as the lists change and then translate all the musical things that happened into the reductionist prose of those weird matrices funders love to chart and graph and assign significance.

Pip over to Stephen's list to see what he means by each of these--there are some surprises. And have a great weekend. See you Monday.