Making It: What Today’s Kids Need for Tomorrow’s World

In April’s Changing the Odds discussion, Karen was joined by Stephanie Malia Krauss, Senior Advisor at JFF and author of Making It: What Today’s Kids Need for Tomorrow’s World.

Karen and Stephanie’s colleagueship started with Karen giving Stephanie an audacious challenge: create a universal list of competencies youth need to succeed that speaks clearly to young people, resonates with leaders across multiple systems, and is grounded in everything we know about learning and development. The result was Ready by Design: The Science (and Art) of Youth Readiness.

Fast forward to now. Stephanie’s continued press to answer the question “What are the essentials young people need to succeed in life’s challenges?” went to full throttle when she learned that many of today’s kids will live to be at least 100. The result is her first book (she’s already working on the next). Making It is not a review of curricula or exemplary programs. It is a big-picture overview of the forces that influence young people’s ability to focus, learn, grow, and succeed now and in the future.

Listen as Karen and Stephanie discuss:

  • How to make sense of the cacophony of acronyms and skill lists related to readiness.
  • How credentials and competencies are different and why neither are sufficient to ensure readiness for college, work and life.
  • Why Stephanie thinks all adults must focus on helping young people stockpile four currencies: competencies, connections, credentials and cash and Karen’s candid perspective about fifth C she’d like to see included: the collective identity to withstand and change our fundamentally racist society.
  • What we can all do to be currency builders, no matter where and how we engage with young people.