Make America a Nation of Learners
For almost a decade, our education conversations have talked around learning, not about learning. Our vocabularly is peppered with NCLB, accountability, human capital, charters, vouchers, AYP, etc.
Mr. President, get America talking about learning. Focus on it relentlessly.
Get started by using policy and the bully pulpit to:
(1) Topple the tyranny of testing and replace it with the love of learning as the focus of the business of our schools.
Demand that schools develop foundational skills as the child’s toolkit for lifelong learning. Then, put most energy into helping each student clearly understand how they learn, and how this know how is used to acquire mastery and expertise through deep study matching their passion.
Learning moves into the driver’s seat, testing into the passenger.
(2) Make sure educators have the latest research based findings from neuroscience on how minds are uniquely wired to learn.
Having this deeper understanding of how students learn permits teachers to better target the best ways to teach academic content and 21st century skills to a nation of diverse learners.
(3) Incentivize every adult to learn and master a new skill.
Not all adults can take advantage of higher education. It’s critical that all of us continue to learn. Support community education, not for profit offerings, online classes and other creative initiatives through modest tax deductions for learning–not solely tuition credits.
In the Once and Future King, a sad and heartbroken young King Arthur turns to Merlin for advice. “The best thing for being sad, replied Merlin, is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. …You may see the world about you devasted by evil lunatics. There is only one thing for it then–learn.”
Mr President, whether you are a maverick or a statesman, the opportunity to create a Camelot moment in education is within your reach. If we are all engaged in learning something relevant to our lives–in our nations’ schools, our communities and our homes–we will rediscover the power of mastery. We also rediscover–as a nation–the feeling of possibility.
This post was submitted by Mary Dean Barringer.
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