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April 27, 2007



Like Melinda Gates' saying, is it possible for an inspiring leader -I don't know who one might be- to solve the education crisis? or is it possible for a couple of billionaires to save the education problem in trouble? If the No Child Left Behind Act is fixed as teachers' demand?

My answer is in the negative. Of course, there is a little bit room for improving the education problems. but the bottom line is not in a hero or in a system, but in teachers and parents. I have seen lots of kids suffering from the unqualified teachers and parents. How could a hero or a law, even if excellent, save the kids spoiled in school or home? On account of the law, have the frequent school-shootings happened? It's nonsense.

Teachers seems to attribute the education crisis to the related law, saying like "We are educating the fill-in-the-bubble child." I wonder there is no mention about the teachers themselves in the survey on NCLB. I think self-reflection on the quality of them should be first. They should have mentioned about like "How to try to improve their abilities for school kids."

To survey the actual conditions of education, I went to the Palm River Elementary School in Florida in 2001. (At that time, I worked in the education part of a newspaper company.) I was completely moved to see the devoted activities of the principal, Mrs. Lillian Wagner. Even though in poor surroundings, the school grade have risen from D to A due to the passions of the principal and teachers. I still remember her saying about the teacher's quality. "A good teacher is a warm-hearted person to love kids and tries to invest a lot of times for developing teaching materials." said she.

What does that mean? The answer to the solutions teachers are looking for is very simple, not complicated. YOUR SCHOOL KIDS ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER!


One more;

Leo Tolstoy'S saying for teachers "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

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