Have you heard of the 4 Pillars?

From the reading...
Delors, J. (1996). The four pillars of education. In Learning: The treasure within. report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty first Century (pp. 85-97). Paris: United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organisation.

Seeking balance in our education system seems like a brilliant idea. Now that we are exploring the realms of cyber citizenship we are defining what it means to be respectful of ourselves, others, diversities and interacting with others appropriately, online and face to face. Teachers also are building students resilience and developing an awareness of themselves as individuals. These four pillars described by Delor (1996) provide a framework that may be worth exploring to ensure our own philosophy is aligned with future expectations in the classroom.

Learning to know
Learning to do
Learning to work with others
Learning to be

While the top two sounds like our classrooms, hopefully the third but what about the fourth?

21st century education seems to be insisting on more focus on the last two in this list, making the balance between all four almost compulsory for future lifelong learners. With cyber worlds and face to face learning, it is very empowering to have the freedom of your own thoughts, judgement, feelings, and imagination.  But also to have these valued through collaboration, knowledge building and learning communities creates a world of opportunities that we are only now getting glimpses of.

Breakdown In Brief

Learning to know
 - a well trained mind needs a broad background and opportunity to study small number of subjects in depth while fostering receptiveness to other areas of knowledge.
- embraces life long learning

Learning to Do
- putting knowledge into practice
- learning to communicate with others, manage and resolve conflicts, develop interpersonal relationships
- use of information and communication skills
- use of intuition, creativity, team leadership

Learning to Be
- develop independence as critical thinkers who form their own judgments
- solve their own problems, make their own decisions, and shoulder the responsibilities.
- remain in control of their thoughts, judgement, decisions
- enabling each child to discover, unearth and enrich their potential
- developing the whole person to act with greater autonomy

Learning to Live Together
- competition is described as creating economic warfare causing tension between rich and poor, unequal status in the environment
- common objectives and shared purpose not only eliminate the possibility for this to happen but encourages a relaxed cooperation and even friendships.
- learning to encounter others through dialogue and debate
- developing mutual respect for each other and diversity