Falling behind....

This portion of the class is hard for me to relate to because I do not believe that a price tag can be placed on the value of education. As I read the readings and listen in lecture, I am deeply saddened to hear comments about the economy and global competitiveness creep into a conversation related to education. To hear the future generation's education compared to the world, I fear that society has lost track of what is truly important in the world. What I want these people to realize is that without education, the money would not exist. As teachers, we give students the necessary skills to succeed in a work environment. Without the future generation learning, there would be no progress in the world. Although I believe that it can never happen, I long for the day when the United States government realizes that education is truly the most important thing in this nation and that we need to re prioritize the funding in this country.

Another area that severely depresses me is when the discussion of global competition turns to the standards and curriculum we have in place. I fully believe that we need to be aware of what other countries are doing in the world and that we need to prepare our students for that world, but I often think that such discussions should not be the only grounds for reform. We should not pursue reform solely for the purpose of competing better with the world. We should be pursuing education reform because we have students in our school systems that are not being challenged and those that are not getting the support they need. As a result, we are failing to provide students with the education they deserve and the one that was promised to them. This problem needs to be addressed first before we focus on comparing ourselves to other countries. We need to think about what is best for the students rather than what is best for the nation.