As a teacher, I feel I am preparing my students for the workforce. With the latest research project my class did on diseases, my co-teachers and I had students choose the disease to research, how they wanted to present their information, and if they wanted to work in groups or not. Obviously, there was scaffolding involved--we gave them 15 or so options to choose from or they could create their own (which several did). By having a small list of requirements and letting them have the majority of the class time to work, these students were able to have time to collaborate if necessary and ask questions. For those who chose to work in groups, students played to their strengths with each group member doing a different task pertaining to their talents. If one group member had a better idea, they altered course. They were all knowledgeable about their respective diseases from researching it. Additionally, if something didn’t work in their presentation, they used problem-solving skills and sometimes had to change what they wanted to do to make it work. As one can see, all of the skills Bock talks about are being taught in this project.
However, where Bock and I differ is that Bock thinks GPAs are “worthless (Friedman 2014) and I do not. Bocks wants to hire people who are intelligent problem-solvers, know what they are doing (expertise), are innovative and curious, and have the ability to learn and relearn. Based on my experiences as an AVID tutor for five years and as a teacher candidate, in general the students with low GPAs have one or more of the following problems: they do not do the work because they are not highly motivated, or lazy, or feel that they are too smart for the work, or are afraid of failure, or (rarely) are not mentally capable of doing the work. As one can see, these all interfere with Bock’s ideas of what makes a good employee, particularly because they have one fatal flaw in common--they do not do the work! Thus, I think GPA is still important and although it may not necessarily indicate a person’s intelligence, but it does determine whether or not they will do the work, which is something I am sure Bock wants the people he hires to do.
As a whole though, I think that Bock is on to something with these five qualities he looks for in a potential employee. Schools need to teach their students skills that will allow them to be successful in their life and career--and that is something I hope to do every day in the classroom.
from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-
google.html?_r=1.