About The Human Skills Library
We're Ashleigh and Jordana, two teachers based in Sydney, Australia, and the founders of The Human Skills Library.
Over the past decade, we've worked with thousands of children in classrooms across Australia, designing and implementing programs that help students build the skills they'll need for life, not just school. Drawing on our backgrounds across education, business and technology, with studies in psychology and philosophy, we've spent years exploring one question:
Can skills like critical thinking, creativity, resilience and empathy actually be taught?
Our answer is yes.
We've seen firsthand that these aren't personality traits children either have or don't have. They're skills that can be explicitly taught, practised and strengthened over time. That's what we've dedicated our work to doing in schools, and it's what inspired The Human Skills Library.
But why now?
After years in the classroom, we've seen something shift.
Children today are growing up in a world transformed by technology. They're more connected than ever, yet they have fewer opportunities to practise many of the human skills they'll rely on throughout their lives. They communicate through screens more than face to face. They have instant access to answers but fewer opportunities to wrestle with problems, think independently, or understand different perspectives.
As technology continues to change how we learn, work and live, we believe these human skills will become even more valuable.
That's why we created The Human Skills Library.
Our books combine engaging stories with practical thinking routines that help children make these skills visible and usable. We want concepts like empathy, critical thinking, creativity and resilience to become part of everyday conversations at home and in the classroom, not abstract ideas that children are simply expected to develop on their own.
Our hope is that every story becomes the beginning of a conversation. A chance for children, families and teachers to notice these skills, practise them together, and keep returning to them over time.
Because human skills are too important to be left to chance.
They grow when we name them, practise them and come back to them together, again and again.
Ashleigh & Jordana
