I Believe in Students

This was published in a local paper several years ago.


I Believe in Students

I believe you cannot teach a person anything unless they want to learn it. Just ask the mom of the toddler who refuses to potty train. True and lasting learning takes place only when the learner assigns value to the information and chooses to retain it. In our time when education is a hot topic in every election and legislative session, theories on how to fix our educational system are many.

I believe the key to solving the leadership and educational crisis in America today lies not in larger budgets and federalized curriculum. Rather, the only real solution to our educational woes lies in a place no one has thought to look: with the actual student. When students get inspired by great teaching to study, learning actually takes place.

In this country we have it all wrong. We want our young children to enter preschool at age 2, learn to read at age 4, and then sit for long periods of time on hard chairs at desks. The research of renowned child psychologists Jean Piaget and Eric Erikson show these methods to be ineffective because children learn best through play in unstructured, loving environments. The love of learning should take priority over the learning itself.

Then as students mature and developmentally can handle the more rigorous academic work, many are burned out by years of testing, pushing and trying to measure up. Parents add to the cycle by encouraging their children hang out at the mall, play on every sports team and fill each moment with a myriad of social activities.

I believe we need parents, teachers and politicians to lead out and inspire students to choose for themselves the difficult and painful road of getting a great education. When students study, they get great education. When students memorize, cram, do busy work, an equally predictable result occurs – a poor to mediocre education.

The great leaders and thinkers of history were all inspired by a teacher, parent or mentor to recognize that they each had a unique contribution and mission to fulfill in life. Helen Keller overcame physical challenges to become an author and scholar because an inspired teacher looked beyond the outward appearance and into her soul. Former President Lyndon Johnson overcame a serious learning disability when a teacher saw his potential and read his assignments to him aloud after school. They developed vision for themselves because they were inspired to love learning. The desire to gain knowledge to fulfill this vision became the motivating force behind years of study. Nearly without exception, this intense study period began in their youth under the watchful eye of parents and mentors rather than at a university.

I believe the responsibility for learning should be placed back on the shoulders of the only ones who can make a lasting difference: the student. Schools should be a place where teachers are given the freedom to inspire and innovate rather than require and test. Other methods of instruction such as coercion, external rewards, punishment, rote memorization and fear of failure can have short term results. The long term consequences, however, are being manifested in our country today as a serious leadership crisis, not just in government, education and business, but in the family as well.

I believe we have the power to reverse this trend because I believe in the youth of America. They are special. They are waiting for the challenge. They are the future. We as their parents, teachers, and government must pull our heads out of the proverbial clouds and reignite the flame for learning. America’s next generation of leaders, scholars, workers, mothers and fathers are counting on us to help them discover their unique genius. Let’s not let them down.