Old school counts in Google age, says Tom Alegounarias THE focus in modern school curriculum on "21st century skills" such as critical thinking, group work and creativity is mistaken, one of the nation's most senior education officials has declared in a dismissal of the push to teach generic skills rather than traditional subjects. Tom Alegounarias, a board member of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and president of the NSW Board of Studies, said focusing on generic skills without teaching students the facts in discipline-based subjects such as English, maths, history or geography was akin to teaching students how to think without teaching them anything to think about.