President Clinton convened his Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting last week in New York City and I was fortunate to attend. While there, I received a first class education, listening as some of the world's brightest and most committed people argued and agreed on new ways to solve the most pressing problems, from global education to climate change. I spoke with activists, policy experts, generals, CEOs and everyday people working tirelessly at non-profits and NGOs in countries around the world. From them, I learned about ways we can all assist in reducing the obstacles to creating systemic change.
Recognizing that the world doesn't need another speech, CGI instead brings together heads of state, corporate leaders, humanitarians and non-profits under the same roof with very clear instructions from President Clinton -- they are not to leave the building until they've made measurable "commitments" to new ways of working together to fight poverty and help the "bottom billion," those who live on less than $1 a day. James Carville even humorously directed all those who hadn't yet made a commitment to raise their hands, so he could give them a Cajun-style public shaming until they stepped up.
Luckily, I didn't have to raise my hand. I was part of a CGI commitment with 1GOAL: Education for All to talk about the 75 million children denied access to education around the world today. If you're keeping count, that's as if every school in the U.S. and Europe combined decided one day to close their doors. Joining Global Co-Chair Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, ONE co-founder Bono, FIFA and private sector leaders, I signed up to be US Co-Chair of 1GOAL and help work for a breakthrough on global education centered around the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The 2010 World Cup will be the first hosted by Africa, and 1GOAL views the world's biggest sporting event as an opportune platform to persuade the millions of fans who peacefully come together to share the love of soccer to also unite on educating the world's children. Our goal is to sign up 30 million World Cup supporters to call on our leaders to make education for all children a priority and reality. Name by name, we believe we can bring attention to global education disparities and make change a reality.
In the US we take for granted that our children have a right to education and the opportunities education provides. But for tens of millions of kids in the developing world, children who are just like our kids, the chance for an education is a hope and a dream, but not yet a reality. These could be our next generation's leaders, athletes, doctors, teachers, and parents. They're ready to do their homework, but school fees, conflict, working in factories and farms, losing their parents to sickness, the cost of a school uniform or simply being a girl can keep them from being able to attend school.
If you have a daughter, sister, or mother, you should know that the majority of children unable to attend school are girls. Without an education, they are almost certain to be trapped in a life of poverty. Despite studies that prove investing in girls and women has a sustainable return, most funding continues to be directed towards other initiatives. You don't have to take my word for it. Read Nick Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn's new book Half The Sky to learn about the butterfly effect of an educated woman versus her male counterpart.
My teachers this past week were the very best in their respective fields. I was humbled by the experience, but more importantly, I walked away optimistic about the tangible results the 1GOAL commitment will generate. I'm thankful to President Clinton, Queen Rania, Bono and the rest of the cultural influencers and educators who took the time out of their busy schedules to engage in such a productive forum. I look forward to attending next year's CGI and giving a report there on the impact of 1GOAL.
Get involved and add your name at join1goal.org
Brad Pitt gives Katrina update at Clinton meeting
Stars Have 1GOAL In Mind At Clinton Global Initiative
Video: Brad Pitt & Jessica Alba at the Clinton Global Initiative
Given the current funding problems for state schools and the university system leading to their partial annhilation by cutbacks affecting almost exclusively the poor (and even not-so-poor), California must then be firmly located in the 'developing world'.
Cheers, Jane
If you want to demonstrate actual causation, you must form a hypothesis, and then test it. In this case, the hypothesis is that decreased Biblical content in schools causes decreased quality of education. To test this, we look not only at the U.S., but at other nations as well.
And there is where the basic fallacy of your conclusion is more than adequately demonstrated...because the majority of the countries that have BETTER education than the U.S. are countries that are MORE liberal, and have even LESS Bible in their curriculum.
Instead of plainly erroneous arguments, why not put the blame where it REALLY lays...at the foot of governments who have consistently made education a secondary or even tertiary priority, continuing to cut funding while at the same time lowering standards. And this can't be blamed on "Liberals" alone...conservative government leaders have been just as guilty.
the level of religiousness in school is 3 or 4 order of magnitude greater than of that of US.
They turnout to be just fine...In fact they kick ass in math and science to any devleoped / secular country.
The problem is not religion dude. The problem is paraental attitude and responsibility..
Secondly the teachers in US are big wuss... they complain about less resource (huh... have you seen a class room in US and Malaysia?) and class size. (again see signapore, Inida , China, and malaysia)
Ban teachers Union. fire incompetant teachers....stop hiring arts/ lang/history teachers in elementary and middle schools. Hire math and science majors instead (these teachers would be smart and have enough Lang/arts knowledge because most probably they took AP classess and got a 4.0 in their 12 grade... that much is enough to tech elementary and middle schools)
Science without music is a dead thing (music is physics brought to beauty, believe it or not), math without dreams is just a spreadsheet with no life, studying alone without participation in group activities like theater productions, choral groups, band, debate clubs and all the rest of those "useless-to-business" extracurricular activities emphasizes the "me" attitude that got us to this pass in the first place.
Try longer hours in School just 2 yrs.
See how quick the number of kid in jail drops, drugs, crime, and gangs.
This is payback from Obama to the teachers Union.
Part of the problem with advocating education for women, in countries such as Afghanistan, is that their society's class, family, and power structure is organized in such a way that girls simply don't attend schools. It's not only seen as an abnormailty, it's seen as an afront to the traditions and culture of generations. We can disagree that girls should be educated and provide assistance in the matter, but when does advocation border on cultural mettling? Particularly in this time there's a growing sense of East vs. West and no matter how much we want it for them, we can only do so much. I read an article on women in Afghanistan and some are saying they don't want an education, and that they don't want to be Westernized. How sad, and yet how would we feel in their shoes?
I applaud you bringing attention to the matter Ms. Alba. We're alike in our desire to have children receive an education.
PLUS a desire to learn...
a will to learn...
and some good quality examples of how to go about learning something new.
Knowing we know how to learn
and realising that we can never know everything
but are willing to try
will give us all better self-confidence...
to face the world
we each know different things...
that is not a bad thing...
because some day...
someone will want or need some of what we have learned or are trying to learn each day.
Witness the number of students with straight-A averages, the number of students receiving awards and medals and ribbons and trophies not for real achievement, but participation. Some schools have five, ten, twenty valedictorians. Schools don't make kids compete with one another for high grades, honors, and awards, because the kids who don't get them might feel bad, which might in turn spark their parents into a how-dare-you rampage. Instead of challenging kids to do better, they simply lower expectations and create more awards. We assume that, if kids struggle or fail, then the work must be too hard of the expectations too high, so we make it easier for them. Thus removing any and all incentive kids have to actually learn and improve.
Public schools require help from the communities they serve to truly function properly. And the issues facing schools today are so deep and varied from state to state and district to district that it's far too simplistic to just say: Schools aren't doing their job because of X.
I semi-agree that American schools are not institutions that are focused on learning--we're insitutions focused on learning how to regurgitate information so we can pass tests. Higher order thinking skills are no longer the focus now. It's quite sad. (Though not as sad as living in a country where you have no access to a free education at all.)
You know that a computer isn't necessary to learn how to read, write, and do math.
Private schools in the U.S. is a model of doing things right. Although the family of the child has to pay for the student to attend, students are generally better educated and more prepared for college and life. Parents are more serious about their child doing well. Everyone is vested. While public schools are PUMPED with money, the majority ends up with the staff of the education cartel, namely administrators and teachers. Public school teachers in my district make about $48,000 to start right out of college (!), and the increases go from there with extraordinary benefits packages. The salaries commanded are so the "children get the best teachers possible." Funny how for private schools in my area the starting salary is $35,000 with a much more conservative benefits package that does not include a free pension, AND class sizes are double that of public schools. If private school teachers are making less but churning out better students, it tells me that a higher-paid public teacher is not worth the cost.
Your use of ridiculous extremist languages like "the education cartel" is just proof that you have no interest in a reasonable debate, but are simply choosing to present a best-case-possible scenario for your side and a worst-case-scenario for the other side. (And I would love to know what you consider "PUMPED with money". The private health insurers are PUMPED with money, too, and that system is bloated and collapsing. Guess that means capitalism's a failure, huh?)
You might want to consider speaking to one of these evil, lazy public school teachers you're so quick to demonize instead of simply lounging in the comfort of your cliches. Ironically, you might learn something.
My kids had one principal who couldn't understand simple statistics like knowing how well his school performed on a state wide exam compared to other schools. I removed my kids from that school system.
Public school teachers are worth the cost. They are highly qualified- something that is not required in private schools. Many private school teachers are only required to have a college degree. It does not matter if he or she has passed the Praxis test. It does not matter if he or she has even taken an education class. Public school teachers deal with all of the issues: pressures from testing, differentiation because of the lack of special education schools, AND demands from parents, administrators, and students.
The next time you'd like to think that a public school teacher is not paid enough, then maybe you should go ahead and take a week off of your own job. Go and take a walk in their shoes. Just follow them around. See how much work goes into it. You'll soon realize that their salaries could double and they wouldn't have made what time they have invested into their students.
I have substitute taught in school. As an engineer, I taught in the higher math and science classes. The kids wanted to know mostly how what they were learning applied to the outside world.