Wisdom of Two Thought Leaders

This is in response to an opinion article from the Boston Globe. The title of the article by Derrick Z. Jackson, The Wisdom of Two Education Giants caught my eye. The education article issues brought to my mind the fear for alternatives for learning. We lost two thought leaders last week Theodore Sizer and Gerald Bracey. The wisdom they brought to us regarding education is brought to our attention in the article. The position being raised was to change the legal school drop out age in Massachusetts from 16 to 18 years of age, because there is a crisis of 10,000 students dropping out of school each year.

Theodore Sizer’s belief in the connection between the teacher and there students is critical in the classroom. How we fail so many in the commonwealth with funding only a quarter of the 12,000 at risk children. We continually spend more for incarceration of these children than educating them in the school with alternative education programs and stop gap solutions. When will we learn from the wisdom of these leaders? Our society of children is angry and fearful of the future. This problem is happening everyday throughout the country with crimes being committed by our youth. We are not moving forward as a society we are standing still and hope is waning for students, teachers, parents and school administrators.

Gerald Bracey’s concern about teaching to the test and what isn’t measured in those tests. Some qualities mentioned in the article that aren’t measured: creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, humor, reliability, enthusiasm, civic-mindedness, self-awareness, self-discipline, empathy, leadership, and compassion. The big business of test provider companies making big money on tests and children not having the readiness to learn is brought to our attention. We as a society need to provide alternative options, choices for our children to learn and grow to prosper and build healthy learning habits and healthy families. It's time to stop the mechanized approach to learning and teach to a society of various ethnic backgrounds and economically challenged children whom deserve an education. Bravo, Mr. Jackson for raising this serious educational issue.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/10/27/the_wisdom_of_two_education_giants/