It’s not the 3 Rs, it’s all about the 4 Cs

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IT used to be that education focused on the 3 Rs (reading, writing and ’rithmatic) — these were the keys to future success. Today, all that’s changed. Now employers, including leading Fortune 500 companies, decided what they really need was employees who possessed 21st Century skills. These skills have been classified as the 4 Cs: Collaboration, Communications, Creativity and Critical Thinking.

This shift is also driving changes in education styles and museums, but we’ll get to that later. Right now, let me try to convince all those parents who think arts are a waste of “good education time” to at least think about the importance of the 4 Cs.

Fast Company, a US business magazine, reported that the 2nd most recruited graduate school degree was an MFA (Masters of Fine Arts). They explained that “Organizations far and wide — perhaps even yours — will compete intensely for workers who are adaptable, resourceful, and can quickly learn and apply new skills to a variety of challenges. Where can you find such workers? One answer runs counter to much conventional wisdom: Ask an artist.

Artists know the world of adaptability and resourcefulness very well. What’s more, regardless of whether they work in the arts or in other businesses, more then three-quarters of arts graduates say that critical thinking, creativity, and the ability to work with others are skills they both learned in school and use on a regular basis in their current work. Arts graduates are plucky and understand how to use their creative skills in a variety of settings.”

The same article cited an IBM global study of 1,500+ CEOs from 60 countries and 33 industries, that identified the most important skill for successfully navigating “our increasingly complex, volatile, and uncertain world is none other than creativity.”

Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are among other influential publications that featured articles hailing the importance of an MFA. Some have even gone so far as to suggest we are moving past the technical age to the age of creativity.

So, what does all this have to do with After Iftar and museums? Please give me another couple of paragraphs to explain.

With anecdotal evidence suggesting an important change was happening in the business world, a coalition of the business, community, and education leaders and policymakers was create to position 21st century skills readiness in elementary and secondary education. The coalition, called P21, The Partnership for 21st Century Learning, started by collecting information from the business community to determine what, in addition to creativity, were the necessary 21st century skills. After an extensive series of interviews and surveys, 80 percent of the responding executives believe that what’s come to be known as the 4 Cs (collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking) “would ensure that students are better prepared to enter the workforce. Proficiency in reading, writing and arithmetic is not sufficient if employees are unable to think critically, solve problems, collaborate, or communicate effectively.”

When all the data was crunched, four skill sets emerged as the dominant ideals. Yup, the 4 Cs.

Collaboration, the first C in alphabetical order, is defined as the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams, exercise flexibility and willingness to compromise to accomplish a common goal and assume shared responsibility for a team effort. This also requires that team members be comfortable as both leaders and participants.

This collaboration game is perfect for After Iftar, as there are probably lots of children around and you want to keep them entertained. Cut a few swimming noodles in two, so that you have one half for each player. Scatter 20 or so blown-up balloons on the ground around a laundry basket.

Give players five minutes to move as many balloons as possible into the laundry basket without touching the balloons with any body part. The catch? The only tool they can use is their pool noodle. At first, players may try batting the balloons into the basket, but they’ll soon realize that they must pair up and use two pool noodles like giant chopsticks to lift the balloons into place.

The 2nd C is communication. For this purpose, communication means the ability to articulate thoughts and ideas, listen effectively, and be able to inform, instruct, motivate and persuade — both in writing and orally. So what you need to do is give your child the chance to share an idea as completely as possible. To that end, ask them to explain something (their favourite thing about Ramadan, for example) and include a lot of “Why?” in the conversation. For an older child (12 and up), you can have them write directions for tying a shoe and then have them read their instructions while you try to follow them (doing only what is said). Trust me, this is much more difficult than it sounds.

Sir Kenneth Robinson, a leading thinker and speaker on creativity said, “Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with the same status.” That’s big. Creativity, the 3rd C, includes the use of a wide range of idea creation techniques, the ability to create new ideas, to elaborate, refine, analyse and evaluate original ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts, and, just as important, act on these ideas to make a tangible contribution to the field.

www.parents.com suggested a fantastic creativity project: “Invent a Superhero Identity.” They recognized that every child wants to be a superhero with super powers, so challenge yours to create a superhero persona. In You Are Your Child’s First Teacher, author Rahima Baldwin Dancy states, “Children .. love to transform themselves into characters who can act out roles in imaginative play.” Ask your child what super powers she would like to have and what superhero name she would choose. Then draw a superhero logo and use old sheets and scraps of material to create an outfit.

Critical Thinking, the last of the 4 Cs, is defined as the ability to reason effectively, use systems thinking, make judgements and decisions, and solve problems. And while that sounds a bit much for kids, it’s actually easy to practice with children of all ages. For example, if you’re reading a new story to your child, ask them to look at the picture on the cover and guess what’s going to happen in the story. If it’s a story they know by heart, try asking them what they would do in a similar situation. If you’re thinking about rearranging the furniture, you might ask them what happens if you move the sofa from here to there.

Depending on the age of the child, the answers are right if they are reasoned. So a 5 year old is right when she says she’d use a magic wand to make the bad guy disappear and a 10 year old is right when he notes that if you move the sofa there you won’t be able to see the TV. (Which leads to another good question: How can we solve that problem?)

Given that food is an important part of Iftar, this critical thinking exercise seems particularly relevant. Ask your child to plan a special menu that includes:

n Five foods that begin with the letter “B”

n Five vegetables

n Five foods that great for holidays

n Five sauces and condiments

Once that’s done, ask them to decide what would make a good appetizer, main course and dessert. I’m betting you’ll wind up with a rather interesting menu.

You have to agree that After Iftar is covered with the above ideas, but what about museums? Have you visited the exhibitions at the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah’s Amricani Cultural Centre? It is a fantastic place to practice the 4 Cs. All the children’s education programmes are designed to include some or all of the 4 Cs, so joining a Storytime, a Family Day or, in the fall, the Children’s Art Workshops will give your child lots of opportunities to develop 21st Century Skills.

But, you don’t need us (in the interest of transparency, I do work with the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah). Come visit and, as you go through the galleries, ask your child some questions. For example, in Long Ago Zoo: Animals in The Al-Sabah Collection, look at one of the cat cases and ask how the cats included are the same and how they are different. The answer requires critical thinking and expressing it requires communication. In the same exhibition, there’s a fabulous plate showing a man riding a camel. You could ask where they think the man and camel came from and where they’re going. That’s creativity. In the Splendors of the Ancient East: Antiquities in The Al-Sabah Collection exhibition, you can pair up with your child to find 10 animals (if they’re young) or pick one object that you both like, “study” it together and then tell others about the object (if they’re older). That’s collaboration and communication. The list of possibilities is endless and, best of all, it’s fun!

By Susan Eileen Day

Communications and Education, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah

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