Learning for 21st Century

Learning for the 21st Century

In the Mile Guide for 21st Century skills, I couldn’t help but think that the whole report was a bit unrealistic. I have been in education for 10 years, in many different capacities, and I although the plan is commendable, I have only seen it in practice in independent and private schools. The letter to America’s Education Leaders states that, “Clearly, we must work together to fully prepare people for the challenges of work and life in the 21st century”. There is a partnership between major businesses and education organizations, and what I would like to know is, how do the public schools in San Francisco, that I have worked with, get to be one of the schools lucky enough to be a partner in this program?

One of the biggest challenges I see to the “plan” is one of establishing a technology infrastructure. It seems that the ability to have a technology infrastructure depends on the ebb and flow of the school budgets. At the beginning of my teaching career, my school’s budget was “fat” and we were able to purchase all the hardware to set up a computer lab geared to preparing and educating the students in a technology forum. Two years later, after developing a computer technology curriculum based on the California academic and technology standards, budgets were cut, and not only could the lab not be preserved and maintained, the Curriculum Technology Integrator (CTI) teaching position could not even be funded! I am a credentialed teacher, and therefore went into the classroom, but the whole program that I had developed just disintegrated. Needless to say, it was very disappointing to the teaching staff, the students and the extended community. The report summed it up in two sentences: Budgets are tight. Demands are intense.

Talking about intense demands, schools in San Francisco, run in on a shoestring budget. Classrooms are overcrowded, understaffed and lack educational materials. I agree with the whole premise presented by the article, we must prepare the future generations for learning in the 21st century! However, until our federal and state governments fully commit to all schools to incorporate the key elements, with funding and resources, then children will be left behind, and no teacher will be left standing.