Just like the movie, Waiting for "Superman" implies that students are waiting for a better education system. We are all waiting for a nation that is really focusing on education. Thomas Friedman discusses our nations priorities in What's Our Sputnik?. He describes how it took the Soviet Union launching Sputnik for the US to kick it into high gear in education.
Today we are being compared with other nations in education and we keep coming up short. I feel that we are spending so much time, money, and energy fighting in other countries that we are not fighting our own battles at home. It is wonderful that we are trying to help others. I think about going on mission trips yet on the way to the airport we pass someone who is homeless and needs something to eat on our home territory.
So what are we waiting for? What will it take to spend more time, money, and energy on education? We continue to see the test scores but when will the cavalry ride in and save the day? There are students from other countries coming and getting high paying jobs due to their push to excel. We need more of that. Are we too comfortable in the place that we are in? When we will see that we need to push harder to reach our goals? I'm not sure. Many teachers are making the shift to real world applicable STEM teaching. We are focusing more on science, technology, engineering, and math so that we can make those advances but society has to be behind that push.
I'm not sure what our "Sputnik" will be all I know is that we need to figure it out soon before we are further behind that what we can come back from.
Friedman, T. L. (2010, January 17). What’s our Sputnik? [Op-Ed]. The New York Times [Late Edition (East Coast)], p. WK.8.
Meganmarie-
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen the movie "Waiting for Superman" but it's on my list. It's despicable the shape that our educational system is in. So many professionals would love to be teachers but they don't want to put up with the low pay, abuse from parents, administrative haggling, and the disrespect that we receive. This profession is not attracting the talent that it should because we are not paying teachers enough.