Guest Author - D. Lynn Byrne, Ph.D.
If you had an opportunity to see, hear or read President Obama's back-to-school address to school children, one of the key points made during the speech relates to the need for children to take a personal interest in their education. I find the commentary interesting as the comments made by our administration almost imply that many of the improvements we've made in U.S. schools may be meaningless if the students in those schools don't step forward to take a personal interest in their own learning process.
It's interesting because for many years, the U.S. has followed a sort of "if you build it they will come" policy for improving our schools. Meaning, as long as we put enough taxpayer money towards building better facilities, providing better infrastructure, and hiring better teachers, everything will be just fine. The new administration seems to think we can do all of that and still fail; and the key to our future success lies in gaining what I call "buy-in" from our students.
This means if we want our students to succeed, we have to help them understand that they have to take responsibility for their learning outcomes. It's a terrific theory. Unfortunately, I doubt it's quite that easy. Primarily because our schools have not, to date, been supportive of students as individuals; which sort of negates the whole individual responsibility idea. But also because many of our schools are stuck in a sort of lock-step educational process; and personally, if my student has educational needs that aren't met on the individual level, there's no way he/she is going to buy-in (or take responsibility for) the educational process. Then there's the whole issue of what's in it for me? Or, in other words, why should a student buy-in to the process and take a personal interest in the process if the process itself (twelve years of work to gain a high school diploma) doesn't lead to an adequate end (gainful employment or automatic entry into trade/technical schools or higher education)?
So, I applaud the administration for keying into the importance of buy-in. Personal interest and personal responsibility are absolutely essential to the learning process. But, I hope they also realize how important it is to provide adequate and individualized education that leads to a quality, real-world outcome. When these two ideals come together, we're likely to see some real improvement.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Visit the School Reform forum or send me an e-mail.
Until next time, happy reading!
