“My Little (Global) School”

“My Little (Global) School”

Thomas Friedman has to be one of the most influential minds in America so when I read his op-ed piece in early spring, I was struck by his analysis of education and specifically to the ever-widening achievement gap between American students and our global competitors. What was especially disheartening about the article was learning that not only are our poorest students falling behind but it appears that middle class students are also struggling to keep up. It begs the question, why? Why in spite of amazing K-12 schools across the country (and access to the best teachers and technology) do we continue to see our students lag behind their peers in other countries? As an educator, it is disheartening to read articles like this one because I know schools are striving to prepare students for a “flat world.” However, there are probably lots of reasons we are still working to bridge the achievement gap with our competitors among them I believe the responsibility of schools has greatly changed in the last 50 years. Unlike any other time in education, we are caring for the basic needs of more children (providing free or reduce lunch programs for example). Likewise, we are not investing the right about of time and money into resources and training for teachers. There are clearly no easy answers to this issue; however, I don’t believe we’ve really begun to ask the right questions yet. tlb