The National Education Association has taken up the gauntlet for American education during Black History Month. Tuning into the message of self-improvement sent by President Obama in his State of the Union, NEA President Denis Van Roekel stated “Despite years of progress, for far too many of our students, the hopes and dreams of past generations are still unfilled.
We’ve got to invest time and resources in transforming our public schools and it starts with local programs and activities. President Obama said we need to invest in the skills and education of our people. He didn’t say that we have to wait for lawmakers to make it happen, we all have the power to begin now to develop programs and provide support that will be the catalyst for change in our public schools.”
It has become abundantly clear that everyone involved in the education of our children, from the school staff to parents, neighbors and even whole communities have to take a hand in the improvement of our schools and neighborhoods to give our children the hope, the tools and the skills they need to make the most of their future. The NEA has issued their challenge to its members; we are issuing our challenge to you, the parents and the communities surrounding these school systems to take up your own action to make the most of our children’s education.
It truly does “take a village to raise a child”. We cannot wait for the government to step in and improve our neighborhoods if we who live there take no action for ourselves. We cannot blame lack of funding for our school’s limitations when we as parents don’t expect more of our educators. We cannot expect our students to excel when we as teachers watch the children in our classrooms lose interest in their own education and choose to not reach out to parents to find out why.
Join the Providence Effect Movement to Save American Education by reaching out, speaking up and expecting more from our schools, from our students and from ourselves. It is time to take up our own fight for our children’s education. It is time for change.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Friday, February 12th 2010 at 4:03PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
