Changing Education in a Twitter World

I love teachers and think they are the unsung heroes of our generation.

Today’s teachers have to compete with MTV, BET, iPods, iTunes, cell phones, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messaging, reduced school budgets, less parental involvement, the No Child Left Behind Act and a host of other concerns. How do we help teachers more?

Education is your TOP priority. Students hear this message, but do they know how to make it happen? How do we reach students in this cell phone/text message/Twitter world with this message?

Many parents stress the importance of getting a good education, and in school students hear the message from individual teachers or in a school assembly. But, in today’s world that is not enough. It is time to do more – for our children and our teachers.

We need an organized, grades 3 through 9 educational responsibility curriculum for all students. The objective: Teach students how they can take a more active, positive role in their education.

Why take valuable class time for a concept that seems so basic? Let’s say that we have twenty-five students just learning how to play football. The coach says: “Here is what a football looks like. You will need to learn how block, tackle, and catch the football.“ Then, the students have three days to practice before the season starts. How successful will the students be? Were they really given a chance to succeed?

Obviously, the team would be far more successful if the students had significantly more information on the football fundamentals, and more time to practice. They could have rallied around their coach and their other team members. They would have learned what it takes to win, how to handle adversity and who they could count on when the going got tough.

Now think back to the classroom. Wouldn’t students have a better chance at succeeding if they had a specific, multi-year curriculum on how to make education a top priority? So why don’t they?

The answer may be in school budgets. Look at virtually any local or state education budget and you will see one glaring fact. Well over 99% of all monies are spent on what adults will do to provide students with a good learning environment. Adults are hoping that the new school building, good teachers, science laboratories, counselors, sports programs, gyms, school trips, etc. will give students a desire and an incentive to learn.

Here is the problem: Less than 1% of any school budget is spent teaching students how they can take a more active, positive role in their education. Like the football analogy, we need to give students more of the how-to fundamentals for getting a good education. An organized, grades 3 through 9 educational responsibility curriculum will give students the tools they need to succeed.

Sample Topics for an Educational Responsibility Curriculum:

Education can teach you:

1. To identify potential roadblocks and overcome them.

2. To solve problems, manage your time and deal with pressure.

3. To communicate more effectively, orally and in writing.

4. To breakdown large projects into small doable parts.

5. To deal with pressure.

6. To listen better, take notes and study effectively.

7. To get along with others.

8. To stay focused and positive.

9. To make better personal choices.

10. To try new things and learn from your success and your disappointments.

11. To help your teacher succeed.

12. That tests, quizzes and classroom discussions are important to you and your teachers.

13. That these five words (yes, I can and I will) can help you in school and in life.

14. To set and achieve goals in the classroom.

15. To minimize these six words (no, can’t, won’t, never, if and maybe) so they won’t hold you back from reaching your full potential.

An educational responsibility curriculum will help teachers energize students to look at their education differently and reach more of their goals in the classroom. A curriculum over several years will teach students how they can do something meaningful and positive to change their educational experience.

Think of the possibilities when more students are actively applying the educational responsibility principles in the classroom. If we can get more students like this, then we will have fewer students who are disinterested or disruptive. When we infuse our classrooms with this type of energy it will impact test scores, class attendance, class participation, personal decision making and academic achievement.

The educational responsibility curriculum is not a quick fix. It will take time to develop a curriculum. It will take approximately five years of implementation for students to fully understand and use the curriculum. But, it is time.

For our students and our teachers let’s make the educational responsibility curriculum a reality, and give our children the tools they need to make education their TOP priority.