These are subjects taught at school. I think these subjects became important during the industrial age. What age are we in now? The technological age, Baby!!

Religion will always be the focus of education. Without it, there is no reason to study and no reason for us to be alive!! But are the other ‘R’ classes standard classes and course work appropriate in this day and age? I mean, who is going to teach relevancy of information? Who is going to teach the soft-skills?Who will teach community building? When will we teach information literacy? Are these the new skills of the future? When will we teach them?

As I teach children and young adults, as I work with adults, as I coach various teams, as I try my hand in the entrepreneurial world, it never ceases to amaze me that people are different. AND, different people are different at different times.

There are conflicts and disagreements. Knowing personalities helps you understand how to deal with people involved in the conflicts. Can I challange a person, do I have to empathize with them? Will they forget about it when they have fun again, or will this be a deep seated event that will be hard to forgive? These questions and there answers will help decide your best course of action.

The thing that troubles me is leading industry and sales executives hire new employees based on 30% hard skills (what they can do and have done) and 70% soft skills (people skills, relationships, conflict resolution, integrity, leadership). Who is teaching those skills to the next set of Americans? That troubles me. I teach math, science, computer and physical skills according to established curricula at Trinity-St. Luke’s. But soft skills are important enough that I feel they should be taught along side of the curriculum. Why couldn’t a teenager read “How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling”, by Frank Bettger. Everyday we try to sell people on a great day of weather, who the best football team is and other trivial sales items. When it comes to building leaders and making disciples I can not think of anything more important than the Bible…then Mr. Bettger’s book.

Yes, that type of information is unique in a standard school setting. It is important. It helps millions of people everyday. How good of a friend, a wise a father, how great of a loving Christian would I be today if I had been studying soft skills for 41 years? How much better could I have influenced young Christians over the last 18 years? How much greater of an impact should have I had on the youth that God entrusted me to serve? Father forgive me!!