Employers complain that graduates arrive without essential skills yet our students are stressed out with the current workload. Our schools are tasked with more than simple job preparation; our primary focus should remain on whole child education despite the needs of employers, but we can’t ignore practical skills.

In an age when technology and the nature of work changes more rapidly than our ability to account for it, how can we reconcile the need to do more in terms of essential job skills when we ask too much of students already? How can we prepare students for skills that may not even exist yet?

The answer is to focus on timeless skills rather than cherry-picking based on predictions of employers’ needs. School should not be all about spreadsheets, word processing, and keyboarding even if we address these basic technical skills. Even programming can be framed as job preparation to the detriment of creativity and flexibility.

Instead, the three following timeless skills should guide our schools’ work: compassion, risk-taking, and open-mindedness.

• Compassion

Our country faces its current state of tumult most of all because of the inability of individuals to put themselves in the shoes of others. More important than success on individual measures of achievement, schools need to put students in the position to support one another and to value kindness over superiority and to see that our best work is done in cooperation with others not in opposition to them.

• Risk-taking

Exploring what intrigues you, taking on problems that seem impossible, developing skills by trying, failing, and trying again – this is the stuff that will give students the foundation to succeed in college, in the workplace, or in any unfamiliar situation. Too often we direct our children toward the most familiar path because we want to see them succeed and to feel the joy that comes with success. However, the grit that develops with choosing the wrong path and then making a choice to move on is incredibly invaluable.

• Open-mindedness

Having the capability to question one’s own preconceived ideas is an absolutely essential skill – and it requires practice. Schools should give students more opportunities to define their own assumptions – and to explore potential challenges to those beliefs. This is especially important in the era of filtered news, when our own ideas are often derived from those who think like us and look like us.