18th Century Skills

Before there were “21st Century Skills,” there were “18th Century Skills.” None other than Benjamin Franklin identified 13 virtues to which he aspired. But Franklin knew that simply trying to embody his virtues without keeping track of his performance wouldn’t be enough. So he created a series of tables to record daily transgressions.Quantifying his data this way made it possible for Franklin to track his progress over time. While he never achieved perfection on the scale he created, he “was by the endeavor a better and happier man” and “had the satisfaction of seeing [marks representing transgressions] diminish” over time.
Not unlike Mr. Franklin, teachers gather quasi-quantitative data about students every day. Doing so can be as simple as a system of behavior checks and minuses. But unless that data is captured consistently over time and communicated to all of the adults who work with that student, we miss opportunities to identify trends and correlations that can help us serve students better and assess the impact of our interventions. Technology has the potential to make such information easier to capture and quantify as well as to provide improved tools of analysis and communication. Wireless Generation, for example, develops simple ways for teachers, students and others to capture quasi-quantitative information about academic and social indicators on hand held devices. Having the information digitized makes it easy to identify trends and correlations.


Imagine if digital tools that could highlight a correlation between lapses in Temperance and Chastity had been available to Mr. Franklin.