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“Celebrating the American Dream” is the theme of American
Education Week this year, and it’s exactly on target for these
troubling times. It reminds people that the seeds of democracy are
planted and nourished in our nation’s public schools, and that
by working together, we can help schools give students both skills
and hope for the future.
The partnership approach to education was always a good idea, but it
has now become critical. With shrinking resources and expanding needs
for students, broad-based participation by educators, parents, and
the private and public sectors has become the difference between success
and failure for our young people.
We need to bring all segments of the community together to focus on
education and insure that all members of a diverse student body — in
terms not just of ethnicity, but also of learning styles and family
circumstances — receive the highest quality education we can
provide.
American Education Week, which runs from Nov. 14 – 20, was actually
initiated after World War I when draft boards discovered that some
25 percent of the draftees were illiterate and about 29 percent were
not physically fit.
In 1921, an education campaign was launched by the American Legion,
the National Education Association, and the U.S. Office of Education,
to solicit public support for correcting these shortfalls. American
Education Week was born that year.
The National PTA joined forces to become an official co-sponsor in
1938, and the National School Boards Association joined ranks in 1980.
In the years that followed, many major educational organizations joined
the effort.
All these organizations are acknowledging that conditions will not
change for education unless we rally the political will to support
those changes, and that can only occur through an informed and concerned
population of citizens. American Education Week is one spoke in the
wheel that is rolling toward that goal.
The timing in California is particularly appropriate this year. Funding
for education continues to shrink despite the fact that we have one
of the largest class sizes in the nation, even after our class size
reduction efforts, and our spending per student remains lower than
any of the industrialized states.
During this American Education Week we should all commit ourselves
to becoming involved, and forcing our legislature to fund adequately
those institutions, such as education, that we value.
In North Carolina, one group of educational leaders hung a little sign
on the outside of all the classroom doors in one school. It read: “Quiet
please — teachers at work — future under construction.” In
a nutshell, that says why we do what we do during American Education
Week and why we follow up those efforts all year long.
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