Figure 6. The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market 65
Occupational Task Content (Normalized to 50 in 1980)
Tasks requiring social skills 55
Nonroutine analytical tasks
45
35
Routine tasks
1980
1990
2000
2010
Source: David Deming, The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market.
we know about brain development, starts at birth, not the schoolhouse door.
The Economics of Human Potential A growing body of research on what Nobel prize– winning economist James Heckman has called “the economics of human potential” has demonstrated that skill acquisition is a cumulative process that begins in infancy. A broad set of socially and economically valuable skills start developing in children’s very first months, build over time, and are critical determinants of academic and economic success. Early skills form the foundation for acquiring additional skills at later stages in the life cycle: Skill attainment at one stage of life enables higher levels of skill attainment at later stages. Early investments in human capital therefore increase productivity of later investments and provide the highest return.58 Early skill development The range of critical skills and abilities shaped in early childhood are conventionally divided
into “cognitive” and “noncognitive” categories. Cognitive skills generally refer to academic ability in areas like literacy and mathematics, measured by achievement tests. Noncognitive skills—often referred to as social-emotional or character skills— include all other skills and abilities like getting along well with others, listening and communicating well, showing empathy, being motivated, possessing self-confidence, having initiative, paying attention and focusing, persevering on challenging tasks, solving problems, managing emotions and impulses, following rules, and so forth. This broad range of skills emerges very early— already evident in infants and toddlers—and young children acquire new skills very quickly. Both cognitive and noncognitive ability are highly malleable in children’s first years but become less so as children grow older. Cognitive skills are largely fixed even by the time children enter kindergarten, while noncognitive skills remain relatively malleable for a longer period.59
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