Session 3: The Raising of America

The videos this week were interesting for me as a secondary school teacher, because I rarely think about early education in my daily practice. Yes I expect my students to have learned certain things, but I don't think about when they were supposed to have learned them, or why they may not have learned them. The most important thing that came up for me while watching these videos was the issue of action. It seems clear that we need better policies and more money for early education in our country, but the problem is acting on that knowledge. Other countries are implementing these programs and having success, so why aren't we? I think we need to come at this issue from the perspective of "where should we go now," because it seems pretty clear something needs to be done. That is my main question after having watched these videos: now what? More specifically, what should I, as a secondary school teacher, do to help? What should my action be?
I commented on DJ Bowen and Brandon Runyon's blogs this week. Brandon shared a story that then reminded me of the quote to the right. It seems to me that by the time kids get to secondary school we are just giving students the fish, when really we should be teaching them how to fish from the day they are born. So what are we going to do about it?