In honor of Flashback Friday (#FBF), this post is about Preschool.  Last week, there was a great article in the New York Times on the 16th entitled, “Why What You Learned in Preschool is Crucial at Work.”

Machines are replacing a lot of traditional work, but one thing machines lack are social skills.  At the same time, skills like cooperation, empathy and flexibility are becoming more and more vital to the workplace.  New research cited in the article indicates occupations that require strong social skills have grown much more than others since the 1980s.  This explains the slowdown of high-skill jobs because the jobs that have been hit the hardest are those that do not require social skills.  Economists are saying that this is generally a positive thing because as technology eliminates certain jobs, it simultaneously creates other ones since it is hard to program social skills.  At the same time, it means that we also need to adapt educational programs to account for this as social skills are rarely something that is emphasized in traditional education.

The article continues to point out that the best example of education that emphasizes peer education is preschool.  Students move from art projects to science experiments and then to recess all while having to use important skills like sharing and negotiating with others.

Dare I say that the one thing the article misses is the importance of debate and speech.  Near the end of the article, it lists “sports, band, or drama” as important high school activities.  Debate and speech force students to hone social skills, interact with all types of people, and adapt to preferences of judges. There’s no reason why schools can’t think more critically of forensics programs as a way to continue emphasizing social interaction.

What other skills did you learn in preschool that are essential to you later in life?  Do you think schools should focus more on teaching social skills?