Moving education forward?

I've been commenting a lot on education blogs these days. Maybe it's that my mom was a public school teacher for over 30 years. Maybe it's that I've been working in corporate/adult education for the last 20 years. Maybe that it's the fact that I have two kids who don't "fit" into traditional educational situations. Maybe that it's the fact that I'm sick of talking about a system that isn't working and especially tired of throwing money at it.

We've made so many advances in so many areas, but American children by most accounts are falling behind. Whether or not the statistics bear that out (whatever way you choose to skew them), I have seen with my own eyes that we are not preparing children for the future--we are barely preparing them for the present.

Do not mistake this for an attack on our teachers--teachers are heroes to me. They are called to their work and by and large they do an amazing job, working many hours, receiving insulting pay, and putting in ridiculous hours. Teachers are not the issue (again, for the most part).

The primary issue is change. I listened to Meryl Streep's address to the graduates of Barnard College the other day. She said something that rang so true to me: "There is only change, resistance to change, and more change." Our educational system has resisted change for hundreds of years. It's like a snail moving in a world on hyperdrive. We know so much about how people learn, and today's kids learn differently than even my generation did. AND they have so many more tools at their fingertips. WHY aren't we changing our educational system to fit the needs of our kids, the needs of our future, rather than continuing to throw money at a system that isn't working for so many?

We know better. It's time to do better. It's time to break out of the box. It's time to do better for our kids. It's time to make better use of our money. It's time to stop arguing, stop speculating, and start trying new things--on a large enough scale to give them an opportunity to work. It's time.