Getting Started on the Road to the 21st Century

I’ve been involved in education in one way or another for almost thirty years.  I’ve been a substitute teacher, a grade school teacher and I taught a year of junior high.  And for the last sixteen years, I’ve been the Executive Manager of 21st Century Schools.

Our Director, Anne Shaw and I have traveled all over the United States, Malaysia, Turkey, India and Vietnam on education related travels. 

The common thread of these travels has been how to create 21st Century Schools.  What has to be done?  How do we create the atmosphere of change?  How do we get teachers to learn what needs to be done?  How can we create innovative students who want to become entrepreneurs?

These are all easy questions to ask, but difficult to answer.  The answer most schools and school districts take is to hire a one-time professional development consultant to come to their school or district and do a one-time training session in order to train teachers to go back to their schools or districts and train the rest of the teachers.

I wish that method actually worked and all our schools were “21st Century Schools”.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.  I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again.  One-time professional development works about as well as taking people off the streets, telling them that they were going to be put into a flight simulator, and when they are done in two days, they can teach airline pilots how to fly people around the world.

How can anyone honestly believe that they can learn in one or two days what it has taken the person presenting the workshop years to learn and perfect?  It can’t be done.

That’s why needs assessments and on-going professional development are so critical to the very concept of “21st Century Schools”.

I’ve been many things in my life - teacher, pilot, racecar driver and software consultant just to name a few. 

One thing I’ve never been is a politician.  I’ve never been able to understand the politician’s lack of understanding about how critical it is to maintain the highest levels and standards in our education systems.  I fail to see how cutting education budgets are beneficial to our nation or our national security.

I fail to understand anyone who believes that our education system is meeting the needs of our students.  I fail to understand how we as a nation can look at our students and not see our nation’s most valuable resources!  The students in high school today are going to be running this country in twenty to twenty-five years.  In our own self-interests I would think that we’d want the people running our country to have had the best education that we could give them! 

But it’s a sad truth that we aren’t.  Most educators in schools today know that they aren’t really giving the best education they could be giving.  There may be numerous reasons for it, lack of budgets, lack of time for professional development, or any number of other reasons.

The biggest reason I see, is a lack of understanding of how by changing the way we teach, the way we view schools and students, we could improve how those students learn.

It’s a big paradigm shift!  But it has to be done.  Other countries around the world are shifting to the 21st Century School model of education, and their results are beyond anything we’ve seen in this country.  The United States is sinking lower every year in test result scores, while other nations continue to rise.  We’re well on our way to becoming a third world country as a result.

So, what do we do about it?

As educators we have to set aside our doubts and skepticism and embrace change!  We have to show our students, and in some cases our own administrators, that there is a better way.  It’s not going to be fast, and in most cases it isn’t going to be easy, but it has to be done.

That’s one of the reasons we maintain this blog and do what we do here at 21st Century Schools LLC.  We believe there is a better way, and we know what it is and how it should be implemented.

I know, I’m starting to sound like a salesman.  That isn’t my intent, even though I’m going to ask you this; if you believe there’s a better way, then take a look at our special offer on how you can, on a limited budget, start your way toward becoming a 21st Century School.

Here’s the link.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my opinions!

Jerry Self

Executive Manager

21st Century Schools