Senate bill 1029, the “21st Century Skills Incentive Fund Act,” would spend $100 million a year to advanced 21st century skills. The bill is sponsored by John D. Rockefeller, Olympia Snowe, and John Kerry.

North Carolina’s education leaders really want our public schools to get jiggy with 21st century skills…na na na na na na na nana.

According to the bill, “21st century skills” (which are really 19th and 20th century skills) includes five components.

(1) Students must be prepared in the core subjects of English, reading, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics, government, economics, art, history, and geography.

(2) In order for our Nation’s students to be prepared to succeed in our communities and workplaces, students need 21st century content, beyond the traditional core subjects, that includes global awareness, financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, and health and wellness awareness.

(3) Students need to go beyond just learning today’s academic context to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills, creativity and innovation skills, collaboration skills, contextual learning skills, and information and media literacy skills.

(4) Information and communications technology literacy is the ability to use technology to develop 21st century content knowledge and skills, in the content of learning core subjects, and students must be able to use technology to learn content and skills so that the students know how to learn, think critically, solve problems, use information, communicate, innovate, and collaborate.

(5) Educators need to incorporate life skills into pedagogy, including leadership, ethics, accountability, adaptability, personal productivity, personal responsibility, self-direction, and social responsibility.