The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It.(Brief article)(Book review)

The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--and What We Can Do About It. Tony Wagner (Basic Books). The Harvard Ed School's Tony Wagner has written a thoughtful half-right book--and it's safe to predict that the other half will get the most attention. He con tends, correctly, that something more than basic skills and factual knowledge needs to be inculcated by our schools and colleges if young Americans are to do their part to keep us competitive in tomorrow's flattening, shrinking world. He adumbrates seven "survival skills" (e.g., "critical thinking and problem solving," "agility and adaptability") that he believes must become education priorities. So far so good--if fundamentally familiar. And he ...