#SuperPowersOfHOST — A closer look into the skills of 21st century
If you are a parent, we’re sure it’s no surprise to you that your kid is obsessed with all the sci-fi fiction with superhero characters. The struggle to change the channel every day is just as real as it can get, mostly because you don’t have the heart to fan their flames of fandom. It’s cute to see them running around the house with towels as capes and paper swords as lightsabers making up stories of them saving the world, right?
The ongoing trends of globalization, demographic changes, and technological progress are not going to slow down or stop anywhere in the coming years. It’s now more than ever that superpowers might come into play to help save the world. No, it’s not the fantasies like abnormal speed, superhuman strength, flight-fight powers that we are discussing. It’s the powers that make us human, the powers that have helped us come so far as a community, the powers that we’ll have to help our children develop if we want them to sustain with the competitive environment that the future hold for them.
These powers are collectively termed as the ‘21st-century skills’ by academicians around the world and we at HOST would want to call them superpowers because that is what they truly are.
AI taking over most of our jobs is very much a reality, but these superpowers are something that only humans can master. These are the skills that would serve as an exit ticket for your kids to come out of the fierce competition in the future and take over superior positions.
Powers of the mind:
Evolution has favored homo sapiens a lot more than all other species mostly because of our adaptive learning tendencies. The computing power of humans might be inefficient when compared to all the technologies around us, but our decision-making tendencies are something that only we can own up to. Do whatever you may, but you can’t pre-feed mathematical data and expect creative outcomes. If there comes a time where man and machines fight for jobs, then the time will favor only those who practice and better themselves at the below skills.
- Critical thinking and problem-solving
- Curiosity and imagination
- Accessing and analyzing information
- Effective oral and written communication
- Information and media literacy
- Technology literacy
We are now at a phase where we are trying to program technologies to mimic our behavior. But that’s all we can get them to do, to mimic. The depth and layers of our brain functioning are complex and sophisticated. We must sculpt our children to profusely master each of these if we want them to excel as they grow up.
Powers of the heart
Facing challenges, braving through obstacles, learning from failures, fixing upon goals, and running endlessly towards achieving them, all of these take a heart of gold and stardust of a soul. A heart that can keep dreaming despite any adversities, a heart that can lift the fellow being, a heart of emotions, a heart of courage and optimism, a heart like no other.
- Empathy
- Self-regulation
- Hope and Optimism
- Social responsibility and ethics
- Global and cultural awareness
These superpowers are the pillars that can potentially hold together the castle of success for your children tomorrow. We need more hearts that are curated with the ability to dream and strive their best to bring their dream to life, to reality. We must help them dream a dream that is not confined to marks or ranks, but rather focus on the bigger picture of life’s possibilities.
Powers of the will:
It’s very much possible to create two robots that are programmed to do the same tasks and function in the same way. But you can’t possibly find two humans that are exactly alike in all aspects. This diversity in our personalities, our will power, and our behavior decide where we stand.
As we progress, schools and our entire education system focuses only on imparting knowledge that might help them understand the world, but not in building the will that might help them live in a better way. The will that can shape them up to overcome failures, the will that can help them keep moving forward despite the obstacles, the will that makes them humans with potential.
We would all be nothing if we don’t set principles for ourselves and live by them with a resilient character molded by our individual will powers. Why is something this common is included in the list of skills you ask? Well, because we are programmed to not face failures and adversities. Reality is far from this and we are going to stumble a lot before we find our spot to settle. It is thus important to take lessons every time we’re hit rather than sulking in a corner. Here are some of the skills that can mold our children to have a will power strong as a rock.
- Agility and adaptability
- Initiative and entrepreneurship
- Grit — Passion + Perseverance
- Resilience
- Vision
- Growth Mindset
Preparing your child for a world that you have no clue about is not easy. But by paying attention to details and having a structural understanding, we can address the knowledge gap that today’s system fails to address.
We should help our kids to think out of the box, to imagine the possibilities beyond. By the time they enter the job market, their brain should be a burning furnace fuming with hot ideas. We should help them understand the way the world functions and how they should function along instead of telling them about what’s already there. This is why all these qualities here are mentioned as superpowers.
We have summed up 18 skills for you here and spoke about the broader perspective of why they matter. Two of our ongoing campaigns #VoiceThatMatters and #MyBiggestLesson are live now and are dwelling deeper into these topics to bring our best research on the table.
Stay tuned to this space for more. Do keep an eye on our social handles to see these campaigns!
