How to raise the next generation?

There is a new article in the Deccember 16, 2006 issue of "Time" magazine:
" How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century ? "

It talked about the current American schools --- they are not up-to-date and doesn't educate students to meet the globalization requirements of the 21st century.

The following listed are several key points that our next generation need to survive in the information era:

(1) Knowing more about the world. Global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant in different languages.

(2) Thinking outside the box. Kids need to learn how to leap across disciplines because that is how breakthroughs now come about. It's interdisciplinary combinaitons --- Design and Technology, Mathematics and Art ---that produce YouTube and MySpace.

(3) Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distiguish between what's reliable and what isn't.

(4) Developing good people kills. EQ is as important as IQ for success in today's workplace.

(5) Master the real knowledge in the Google Era. They don't need to remember all the river names in South America besides Amazon, just look them up at Google.

This is a good article about education. As parents, we need to think about these points and not just blindly follow the current school systems. We need to figure out a good way to provide combined global education to our kids although obviously they have advantages here as second generation immigrants.