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 do 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 to 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, PhD
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
Winona
State University
Winona,
MN
55987
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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