Teaching the Life Skills Necessary for Success

I hope you're sitting down because I'm not sure I've ever written these words, but I agree with Randi's article (http://www.uft.org/news/randi/ny_times/What_Matters_Most3.pdf).  It is indeed critical for our schools to teach children life skills.  Note that KIPP's motto is not "Work hard.  Get high test scores" or "Work hard.  Go to college."  It's "Work hard.  Be nice."  But Randi's wrong to take a slap at testing -- nice kids who can't read aren't going to go very far in life...