[Winona Online Democracy] Content of document sent by Kelly Herold to the WOD group -- ********************* How do you see schools changing in the next 2 to 5 to 10 years and how can WAPS achieve broad based support from the community (including seniors and others living on low incomes)?
In order for schools to be successful all invested parties in the education system have to feel as if their financial, emotional, and intellectual efforts are incorporated into the design of the curriculum, assessment of the system and the expenditure of taxpayer monies. A trend of devaluing government programs, including education programs, seems to have gained momentum. This may be due to a growing disconnect between those who participate in the education process such as, students, teachers, administrators, and parents, and those who only feel connected to the education programs as a taxpayer. Even though government programs can be bureaucratic, clumsy and at times inefficient, I believe our public school systems to a great job. Unfortunately we have come to understand the effectiveness of our education system through a trendy “customer satisfaction – business model”. This model doesn’t effectively explain education programs and devalues the intangible positive impact that public education programs have on a community. Knowing the customer satisfaction model has had impact, over the next 2 to 10 years we will likely to experience increased pressure on local communities to pay more of the education bill. In response that pressure school districts will be forced to find ways to provide education with less money, or persuade the community to invest more into the education process. Unfortunately that is very difficult to do if those paying the bills only see themselves as participating in the education system as bill payers. This perception has to change. To do that increased community involvement by building educational partnerships with many groups including, students and senior citizens and those living on low-income sources need to be fostered. Educational partnerships would benefit the community, improve relations between taxpayers and students, and help change the perception that education is just about the students, teachers, administrators and standardized test score results. An inclusive partnership would demonstrate that the measured value of education goes beyond improved scores on standardized tests. In addition, the community and the students would learn to embrace life long values like; improved citizenry, life-long education, and being a good neighbor. These are values that are central to our community fabric and need to be nurtured. I don’t have the answers but I do have few ideas that could be considered to improve these relationships. 1. A tutoring program – where senior citizens would volunteer to work with students who need help in subject matters. 2. An adult education program – where high school students would volunteer to work with low-income and/or senior citizens on subjects like computer literacy. 3. An altruism program where students, senior citizens and low income constituents would team together to identify community education needs and develop educational workshops like; programs on our local eco-environment systems, race relations, evaluating local media coverage, to name a few. Finally – I believe that the future will also see an increasing use of technology to make information available to students and the community. But this has a long way to go in terms of fairness, distribution and use. While we have more and more technology available to us – we also need to be concerned with the critical thinking skills necessary to evaluate sources, to collate information and not get overly fascinated with the technological process of educating people and instead concentrate on the ability to deconstruct, evaluate and understand all of the material available to us. Respectfully, Kelly P. Herold --- Kelly Herold <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [Winona Online Democracy] > > > -- > Kelly Herold, PhD > Associate Professor of Communication Studies > Winona State University > Winona, MN > 55987 > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > _______________________________________________ > This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy > All messages must be signed by the senders actual > name. > No commercial solicitations are allowed on this > list. > To manage your subscription or view the message > archives, please visit > http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona > Any problems or suggestions can be directed to > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > If you want help on how to contact elected > officials, go to the Contact page at > http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org > ===== <(©¿©)> Craig [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
