Thursday, August 13, 2009

Educating for Their Furture Not Our Past

Today was the first day of school for my seventeen year old son. I think this is the very first time on his academic journey that I did not shed a tear at the launch of a new year. I am not sure why my eyes remained dry. After all today is a milestone in several ways; he drove himself to school and is starting college a year early while he earns his last few high school credits. Yet for the first time since he toddled off to "Mommy and Me" I am not nostalgic. I am excited about his new adventure because Middle College is a unique opportunity to escape the four walls of traditional high school and transition to more responsibility and academic rigor. I don't expect the program to be perfect or believe JW will have a flawless year but I am grateful to be part of an alternative that is not reserved for scholastic stars or designed for drop-outs. We need more alternatives for "regular kids" like JW.

I believe the next generation of parents will demand transformation of schools. I am not talking about more detailed standards or increased high stakes testing. I mean deep change in how we reach students and in what we want them to know and be able to do. There won't be one perfect model of a 21st century school. There will be many types of learning communities that will enable our society to what Robert Epstein describes as
"mass education on an individual basis."
Epstein, former editor in chief of Psychology Today, has a great take on what today's teenagers need and why they are not being well served in the traditional high school.