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Reading, Writing, ‘Rithmetic — And Social Skills

Gen Z will be your business tomorrow – learn who they are nowself employedDuke University researchers are making a case for teaching the "soft skills" of self-control and social skills to kids along with the basics. The reason? They'll have a better chance of staying out of trouble as adults.Their proof came from the outcome of a 90s program called Fast Track, for children who were identified by their teachers and parents to be at risk for developing aggressive behavioral problems. After a series of interventions involving parents and teachers, the control group that received attention (ages 6 - 11) showed fewer signs of delinquency, arrests and use of health and mental health services as they got older.Looked at more ambitiously, teaching coping skills and social skills — and crucially, empathy, according to one researcher, will do more than keep potentially troubled kids out of jail. If the predictions about robots taking jobs away from humans in the future bear out, human skills like emotional IQ and empathy — skills robots will not master in the foreseeable future — will give adult humans an advantage on the job market. Tune in to culture with now, next. Now on the app store.