{"id":6092,"date":"2016-04-21T14:30:14","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T19:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=6092"},"modified":"2024-11-15T08:29:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:29:36","slug":"heads-message-april-21-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2016\/04\/21\/heads-message-april-21-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Head’s Message | April 21, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, WCCO-TV featured \"MPA-119\"<\/a>senior Allison Leopold (watch the story<\/a>). Allison made history, winning her fourth medal in the Minnesota State High School Speech Tournament. Allison is only the 51st<\/sup> person to earn that distinction in the 47 years the tournament has been in existence. In any given day at MPA, students learn and practice how to communicate effectively in numerous ways in multiple settings. On Monday mornings, students as young as five stand in front of their peers with a microphone, sharing what they are learning in their classes. I could fill several pages with the many ways students gain confidence in both their ideas and themselves as they learn to communicate.<\/p>\n

Expressing thoughts clearly, crisply articulating opinions, communicating coherent instructions, motivating others through powerful speech\u2014these skills have always been valued in the workplace and in public life. In today\u2019s 21st century world, with its abundance of news and social media, these skills have become increasingly important. However, if you were to look across public, charter, private, and independent schools, you would be hard-pressed to find communication named as a priority, let alone in the school\u2019s mission statement.\u00a0 You will find it at Mounds Park Academy. \u201cCommunicate effectively\u201d is directly stated in our mission, immediately following \u201cthink independently.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than an extracurricular activity, special project, or course objective, communication is an important 21st century skill necessary for success in today\u2019s society and workforce. In the report, \u201cAre They Really Ready to Work?\u201d published in 2006, employers noted that although oral and written communication are among the top four skills they seek in new hires, they find all graduates are lacking in these areas. High school graduates fare the worst, with 81 percent of employers citing this group\u2019s deficiency in written communications and 53 percent reporting a deficiency in oral communication.<\/p>\n

More recently, in the 2013 Job Outlook survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the highest rated skill was \u201cthe ability to verbally communicate with persons inside and outside the organization.\u201d\u00a0 As our society evolves from the industrial age and ideas, processes, and knowledge are shared collaboratively, effective communication is even more crucial.\u00a0 Authors and economists, Frank Levy and Richard J. Mundane, have written extensively about communication in today\u2019s workplace. Because complex communication involves explanation, negotiation, and other forms of intense human interaction, jobs that require these skills are not as likely to be automated.<\/p>\n

Effective communication is indeed important for success in the workforce.\u00a0 However, it is also necessary to be successful in society. Without pointing fingers, the lack of intelligent and civil discourse in politics today demonstrates that the absence of real communication breeds disharmony and lack of trust and leaves us isolated and insulated. The health of our society depends on our ability to engage others\u2019 perspectives and come to new understandings though respectful conversation and dialogue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, WCCO-TV featured senior Allison Leopold (watch the story). Allison made history, winning her fourth medal in the Minnesota State High School Speech Tournament. Allison is only the 51st person to earn that distinction in the 47 years the tournament has been in existence. In any given day at MPA, students learn and practice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-school","category-heads-message"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6242,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6092\/revisions\/6242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}