This discussion brings to mind a study I heard about asking teachers
what their main problems were in the school systems. The interesting
thing about the study was the same questions were asked in 1960, and
then again in 1990.
In 1960, the main problems were, running in the halls, chewing gum,
slamming and mistreating locker doors. Move thirty years forward to
1990, and the main problems were, teenage pregnancy, drugs & alcohol,
suicide and violence. Faced with these challenges, it's surprising
that teachers can teach at all.
We have to return to the fact that blaming society for all these ills,
is like blaming the local fire department when your house burns down.
Sure there's some responsibility if the fire dept. doesn't get there
quickly, but if you left the iron on, or didn't replace the faulty
wiring then think again.
As parents, we all have a major responsiblity to teach our children
values, and point them towards the information they need to improve
and become valuable to the marketplace. The declining number of days
children can go to school (more vacations, more teacher education
days, more summer holidays) is contradictory to the increasing amount
of information and tools that children must learn and use. People
who expect society to step up to this challenge, are going to be
disappointed.
It's up to each of us to take some action. This week, I've got a
doctor flying in from California to give some presentations here in
Ottawa on how we can give our children a 27% edge over other children.
It's individuals who'll make the difference in education, not society
or businesses.
Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GScherling_GMS_TPN
--GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>