Nexuses of opportunity
Dear President Obama,
Congratulations! It seems that only in becoming a leader is a person congratulated on suddenly having so many problems to fix. And many of your most firmly entrenched and deeply rooted problems lie in the realm of education, especially considering education is at least a part of the solution for almost any other problem.
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to contribute a few ideas, even in the midst of brainstorms by some famous and very impressive brains. Here is my take on our national education priorites, which is all about addressing root causes and not symptoms:
Find nexuses of family issues and our education system. Absent fathers and other dysfunctional situations, lack of parental support and involvement, two-wage-earner households, and unhealthy exercise and nutrition habits all detract from educational success. Addressing these problems will involve awareness campaigns, outreach programs, government agencies, commercial enterprise, volunteerism, and charity. In addressing them we ought to do so with education in mind: not only should fathers be present, but they should encourage their children to learn; not only should government agencies support troubled families, but they should support them in part through the promise offered by education. And dealing with such family issues will overlap somewhat with the next goal:
Find nexuses of community issues and schools. Some problems (like absent fathers) have a broader community component while still being primarily the problems of individual families. On the other hand, drug trafficking, gang warfare and poverty are issues that are best addressed at the community level. You know quite well for yourself how these plagues occur in pockets, bringing down one community while only blocks away another thrives. Kids who live with drugs, gangs and poverty have much less chance of getting an education that shows them another way out, as education takes a distant back seat to daily survival. There are models out there for bringing together elements from within and outside a besieged community to foster the hope and forward momentum needed to make education a priority again. The organization A Better L.A. is trying to do this in Los Angeles through cooperation between police, parks & recreation, corrections, family services, gang programs, universities, corporations, charities and community groups. I’m sure there are other examples pursuing other models throughout the country. Find out what’s working and encourage it to spread like wildfire.
Find nexuses of societal issues and schools. The “nerd” stigma, for example, tells children that smart is bad. Some of this is part of human nature, the mob mentality that sometimes tells us to tear down those above us so we don’t feel so small ourselves. You and the other powerful leaders around you have an enormous opportunity to be role models. Start an online “President’s Book Club,” so that children everywhere can see that the President of the United States loves and benefits from reading. Or what about the “President’s Study Group,” where you could share (in ways appropriate for various age groups) the ideas, articles, reports, books and materials you consider in making the important decisions you face, so that children can watch rational thought and problem-solving in action in the highest office in the land. And the “nerd” stigma is just one broad social issue to overcome. We could stand to practice more common courtesy; we have a ways to go in facing down racism; and we have many other shortcomings that you now have the opportunity to improve in the name of creating a new generation of healthy, curious lifelong learners.
Find nexuses of educational deficiencies with other educational deficiencies. Kill as many birds as possible with one stone. Find programs, curriculum elements, techniques, people, methods and philosophies that promote as many different forms of educational success as possible. Something that effectively teaches kids English while honing decision-making skills and making use of new technology prepares students for the “real world” while working on a core subject; a curriculum that gives kids some exposure to reading, history, art and science while focusing on teaching them math reinforces their learning in other classes before they even get to their homework. And it’s very important that physical education, consumer education, ethics education, and the arts all be vital parts of the K-12 curriculum. One look at the short list of pressing crises—credit, obesity, an aging population, the environment—and it’s easy to see why.
Lastly, these intersections must be sought out using a nationally driven and nationally standardized but locally flexible model. The biggest problems in South Los Angeles are not the same as those in Trenton, Michigan or Boulder, Colorado. Our knowledge and resources ought to be shared agressively on a national scale, but local leaders need to be offered the knowledge and resources most right for their particular situations. Hopefully this can be done in a way that incentivizes and supports success, rather than punishing failure. And most of all, your best ideas are likely to come from teachers. Please listen to what teachers say they need to succeed. I think you will be surprised what you hear in response to that simple question.
Best wishes for a richly successful presidency,
Jeremy Olsen
Burbank, California
This post was submitted by Jeremy Olsen.
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