How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century?

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Paradigms

I find it very interesting how Sir Ken Robinson begins his speech with "Every country is reforming public education". I do not completely agree that in my country, Mexico, the government is actually reforming public education with the intention to prepare children for our 21st century economy. The educational standards are set and regulated by the Secretaria de Educacion Publica, a federal government division. The educational division discuses and makes decisions of what are the needs in education and how can they implement different policies, but they do not prioritize the skills children need to develop for their future placement in the worlds economy. Mexico is a country were more than half of the children that actually attend school are enrolled in public education institutes, classrooms have from 30 to 50 children with only one teacher in charge of the group with no differentiation and almost no technology. So my question is, due to poverty in this country, what can we teach children that attend public schools? Survival techniques? Technology? No. We let children play, investigate, be creative. We guide them, teach them techniques that will help them become independent human beings, so they can develop critical thinking and problem solving skills so they eventually become someone, so they can go to college, be able to have better job opportunities, to let them be part of our society. We adults are the ones who have to consider ourselves in our economy, so we can fight for education, for our children's future.