Inaugural Education
(01/28/2009)
Many in education will take heart from President Obama's
inaugural address last week, including the encouragement
they'll find in these few words: "we will transform
our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands
of a new age".
Meanwhile the lessons of those who haven't just shrunk the
academic achievement gap a little, or reduced it a lot in
this grade and subject temporarily, but instead have gone
all the way to closing the gap in every grade, subject,
and year tells us that these inaugural texts: "our
economy is badly weakened, a consequence of . . . our collective
failure to make hard choices", "the challenges
we face . . . will not be met easily", "the time
has come to set aside childish things", "Our journey
has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less .
. . Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the
makers of things — some celebrated but more often
men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us
up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom",
and "our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow
interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that
time has surely passed" are just as relevant to
our task as the first.
So we know by the experiences of those who have gone before
us in closing the gap that it is by executing the work of
these latter texts that we achieve the goal of the first
text. And it is by our volunteer's response to the very
good nature of our Altadena voters that we will get there!
