A New Model for Social and Educational Reform

Americas investment in its public education system is the vital issue of our generation. The reforms we take part in today will dictate whether or not we create a generation of learners, dreamers, thinkers, creators, inventors, and builders for tomorrow. We cannot continue to argue whether or not school vouchers are better than 100% public school education or if charter schools can fully prepare our young people for the real world or if private schools are the only savior for a "real" education. Simply put, we must ensure every child is receiving a first-rate education everywhere regardless of race, belief, or social/economical upbrining. I suppose the big question then becomes what is a first rate education? Lets start with the basics: (1) Parents who mentor and ensure their child is attending class and respecting his or her teacher, (2) Students who come prepared and willing to learn every single day and expect a challenge, and (3) Teachers and school administrators who are fully prepared, excited, and qualified to teach our next generation of Americans.

There are many examples of school systems that fail to accomplish any of those goals and there are also many who greatly match and exceed them--and those are the schools we should be studying and looking at as a model for school reform and social change. We also cannot continue to endlessly throw money at schools that are simply failing our young people. There must be an end to excuses, poor results, mismanagement of resources, and failed expectations. If we expect our young people to want to learn, to be excited and able to do so, we must first offer them a product that is worthwhile and prepares them for not only the challenges of today, but for the hopes and dreams of the future. I truly believe that the future prosperity of our nation depends on the fate of our urban and rural school districts and communities alike. We must begin to truly understand these communities--meeting with parents, students, teachers, administrators, experts, and so forth, to forge ahead in a new model for education reform that directly links with a new model for social change and economic prosperity.

Young people who are engaged in their communities, who see the link between a solid education and a solid job--that believe that their home is a sacred place, that their lives are more important than drugs, gangs, or violence--these and much more are all vital in our quest to change and inspire a new generation of individuals. It won't happen over night or in a couple of years--but through the sharing of ideas and knowledge I believe we can overcome these great challenges. Through the building and linking of young people and parents with not just their school, but their surrounding environment I believe we can bring about real change. Having families create and run their own businesses, helping to build their own homes and schools, making them directly responsible for their own failure or success--and guiding them with the necessary tools for strong financial planning, educational growth, life skills, and so forth--I believe would be a new and interesting model for a better society for many living in poverty without hope or purpose.

We cannot simply depend on schools to do all of these things and still be able to fully educate our young people. There must be a partnership that brings together many ideas, community and business groups, and families. The investment would not only benefit those who join it, but also our society as a whole through the lessening of social welfare, the rise in prison rates, violence, drug use and instead would create a generation of independent, self-motivated, dream driven idealists who would create a new American legacy. When we are able to show young people who have been denied success all their life, who have been told they cannot go over the mountain, and who simply see life as a dead-end, we are able to expand on the idea that we are all in this together and that with every success story comes proof that given a challenge, a chance, and the right education--anything is possible.

We cannot continue to disregard the importance of social and economic change in our mission to reform our schools and our communities--economic and health inequality just to name a few. These ventures and goals are all intricately linked--they feed off of one another for good or for worse. So just close your eyes for a minute and imagine a community that wholeheartedly embraces their culture, their dreams and goals, their schools and leaders, and that feed off success rather than failure, hope instead of hopelessness, prosperity over depression, and the belief that each and every one of us can control our own futures and in turn open up new doors for a better and more enriching life. We can do this and we must or we are putting aside a whole generation of young people into the pits of failure and demise that will affect this country and this world for centuries to come. I challenge our leaders and each of us to stand up for a new model of education and community reform that embraces these ideas and beliefs:

(1) Education reform is linked directly with community and social reform,
(2) Empowering inner city communities to become caretakers and reformists of their own lives and neighborhoods will positively impact our nation for generations to come,
(3) Increasing personal development and life skills within our communities and schools is a method to empower lasting social change,
(4) Challenging all people to take positive risks and become independent entrepreneurs and leaders is a positive step for our society, and
(5) Failure to believe that all people are of self-worth and of vital importance to the future success of America and the international community will only lead to increased social welfare and dependency, lack of innovation, a stagnant economy, and decreased independence on ones own natural gifts, ideals, and hopes.

I know this is a broad thesis on the link between social change and education reform, but I believe we must begin to think much broader in how we can inspire and empower a lost generation of young people. We have watched for decades as our society has left millions of people behind without any regard to human dignity or support. The idea that there is this American dream for every family that wants it is not plausible in the 21st century. We now live in a melting pot of different ideas, beliefs, cultures, hopes, dreams, and crisis. Teaching our children with the same methods of our parents generation is not working. Building more prisons, rather than solving the underlying problems of crime and drug use is not working. Investing in short term solutions, even with our long term prognosis looking mediocre at best is not working. We must begin to simply not just think outside of the box, but tear it down. With over one million students dropping out every year from high school, rising crime and drug rates, increased financial instability, rising health care costs and lack of coverage, changing industries wiping out whole communities, and international competition for American jobs and college entrance slots--I am not sure there will be any American dream in 10 years if we do not start seeing the link between all of the things I wrote about earlier in this post.

Let us not fear the future, but lets see it as a rising challenge to be solved by new minds and new ideas, but also let us not fear the idea that our lives are linked by the success and failure of the least of us.

JM

"We are social creatures, our behaviors are shaped and constrained by social norms and expectations. Negotiating change is best pursued at the level of groups and communities. Social support is particularly vital in breaking habits, and in devising new social norms and more sustainable patterns of consumption. Government can play a vital role in nurturing and supporting community based social change."
---Professor Tim Jackson, University of Surrey

"Unless we involve people in the definition of their problems and the choice of solutions, we will produce a thin governing system that produces public services that patch over problems rather than going to their heart."
--Gerry Stoker, Chair of the New Local Government Network (NLGN) think-tank and Professor of Political Science at Manchester University.

"“No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution - Revolution is but thought carried into action”
--Emma Goldman

“In embracing change, entrepreneurs ensure social and economic stability”
--George Gilder

"“Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.”
--Robert Hutchins

"The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds."
--Abraham Lincoln

"One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade."
--Chinese Proverb