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Do You Track Your Child’s Grades? Here’s What You Might Be Missing.
Most parents know what their child is learning in school each term.We check their grades online, ask about the test, help with the homework. We track reading progress and due dates s like it’s our job, because in many ways, it is.
But there’s another set of skills that researchers, educators, and employers say matter just as much, and most parents have never been handed a roadmap for them.
They’re called durable skills. And your child is building them (or not) right now.
What Are Durable Skills, and Why Do They Matter Now?
You may have heard them called soft skills, human skills, or skills AI cannot replace. To be honest, I haven’t been able to find one consistent and comprehensive list (so if you know me at all, I am working on creating one). . But the idea is consistent: these are skills that make us uniquely human and are the skills that grow with a person, or endure, over time. Skills that survive job shifts, industry changes, and whatever technology comes next. Skills that prepare our kids to be ready for anything.
Leadership. Communication. Critical thinking. Adaptability. Creativity. Curiosity. Collaboration. Growth Mindset. Resilience. Empathy.
At ASU+GSV 2026 one of the largest gatherings of education, technology, and policy leaders in the world, this theme surfaced in nearly every room. And the urgency behind it was real.
Isabelle Hau of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning underscored why these skills matter now more than ever : durable skills development is not just an educational priority. It’s a societal one. The investment we need isn’t only in curricula and technology, it’s in teachers, students, families, and communities. In what she called relational infrastructure: the human systems that make learning and flourishing possible.
The Skills That Actually Show Up in the Research
Across multiple sessions at ASU+GSV, a consistent set of durable skills emerged as essential for young people growing up in the age of AI. They fall into three categories:
How your child thinks: Critical thinking, problem-solving, discernment, creativity
How your child works: Communication, collaboration, adaptability, sustained attention
How your child shows up: Agency, human connection, accountability, caring about something beyond themselves
Two of these deserve extra attention.
Sustained attention is increasingly recognized as something we have to actively cultivate, not assume. In a world of constant pings and algorithmic feeds, the ability to stay focused is becoming rare, and valuable.
Caring about something bigger than yourself. Acknowledging that we are part of something bigger and wanting to make a positive contribution promotes human sustainability. It reflects a growing recognition that AI can optimize for outputs, but it cannot replicate meaning. That comes from us.
Three More Skills Worth Adding to Every Parent’s Radar
Beyond what’s being discussed in education circles, three additional skills belong in every conversation about raising kids in an AI-shaped world:
Empathy and compassion. AI can generate empathetic-sounding language. It cannot feel what another person feels. The ability to genuinely understand and care about someone else’s experience is one of the most distinctly human capacities we have, and one of the most important to protect and cultivate in our kids.
Co-creation (with and alongside AI). Not using AI, and not avoiding it, but building alongside it. Knowing when to bring a human perspective the tool can’t supply, and when to let the tool do the heavy lifting so their energy goes somewhere that matters more.
Intentional AI use. The ability to make conscious, values-aligned decisions about how, when, and why to use AI. Discernment applied specifically to the technology and its outputs. Understanding and practicing ethical and responsible use. Prioritizing data privacy and security. This is the skill that makes all the others possible in the world your child is actually growing up in.
The Gap Nobody Is Talking About
At one panel on durable skills and AI fluency, the moderator asked a sharp question: Students are still looking to trusted adults to guide them. How do we make sure the adults in students’ lives are prepared?
The responses were thoughtful. And they were almost entirely about educators and schools. No mention of the other trusted adults in our kids’ lives. Us, their parents.
Here’s what that conversation missed: the hours outside of school are significant.
The unstructured time. The late evenings. The early mornings. The friendship challenges. The disappointments. The car rides. The moments at home where nobody is tracking learning objectives. That’s where a lot of the doing actually happens. Where kids are experimenting with AI tools, navigating emotional terrain, forming habits and beliefs, with or without a prepared adult nearby.
Parents are the trusted adults in many hours of our kids’ daily lives.. And most of the conversation in education, policy, and EdTech isn’t really designed for us.
This Isn’t a Motivation Problem
Most parents, when they hear about durable skills, are immediately bought in. Of course these things matter. Of course we want our kids to think critically, communicate and collaborate well, learn to adapt and, have compassion for others.
What’s missing isn’t the will. It’s the shared language, the framework, and any practical sense of how to build these skills at home, in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday.
That’s not a parenting failure. That’s an access, awareness and preparation problem.
Durable skills don’t only get built in school. They get reinforced at home, or they don’t. And that starts with awareness.
Just like we know our kids need to pass algebra, we should know they need to build discernment muscles. This means they need to be able to identify when something they see, read or hear is AI generated or not Just like we track reading levels, we should understand what sustained attention actually looks like when it’s developing, and what erodes it.
Where to Start
If you’re a parent reading this and thinking, I want to be more intentional about this, here’s the good news: you don’t need a manual or course. You need a starting point.
A few resources worth bookmarking:
- Durable Skills Overview (YouTube) — A short, kid-friendly intro that’s a great conversation starter for families.
- Durable Skills: Strong Starts — Aspen Institute — A deeper read on what employers actually want from early-career talent, and what that means for how we raise kids today.
And the most powerful thing you can do right now? Start noticing.
Notice when your child persists through something hard. When they collaborate. When they push back thoughtfully instead of just reacting. When they show curiosity that nobody assigned them. When they demonstrate responsibilities that you’ve been reminding them about for years.
Those moments are the ones that matter most. And now you know to look for them.
Which of these skills feels most urgent to build with your kids right now? And where do you currently go, or wish you could go, to learn how to actually do that at home? Drop a comment below.
About the Author Julie Kelleher is the founder of LIKEAMOTHER.AI™ and the creator of Parent-in-the-Loop™, upskilling and reskilling for parents navigating AI with their kids. She is a former middle school teacher, Peace Corps Volunteer, and EdTech strategist with nearly two decades of experience.
April 21, 2026
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