Strength comes in different forms. A person who displays and uses physical attributes is considered strong. Someone who demonstrates calm in times of stress or trouble could be considered emotionally strong. An individual who exhibits above average intellectual ability could be classified as mentally strong. Educational strength, though not as widely recognized, is a life-changing factor capable of helping anyone who develops it.
Quality education it produces the kind of force on which life can be built. Its foundations are reinforced with the strength of knowledge, its pillars are erected on the support of wisdom, and its structure is solidified with the cement of trust. Without it, the winds of chance and circumstance can blow through one’s existence like a hurricane through a tree house.
Reading today’s reports on the challenges facing public schools would leave readers shaking their heads and thinking, why bother? Poverty, classroom size, family problems, technological insufficiency, bullying (physical and online), student attitudes, student health, obesity at epidemic levels, under- or over-engagement of students Parents, funding… when taken together, it’s no wonder that such a bleak and negative picture paints.
Education is the foundation of our future
The truth is that we have to care because our future depends on it. The power of education is enduring, and forms a foundation for understanding and addressing the critical issues facing our country and the world in the 21st century. Contrary to the pessimistic headlines emanating from critics of public education, success stories abound in schools struggling to overcome the ever-present challenges and obstacles to everyday learning.
Education, particularly in our public school system, has received a poor, and some would say unfair, review. Unfortunately, accentuating the negative is what makes news headlines so much more prevalent than the positive stories that occur daily in classrooms across the country. Teachers work hard every day to develop academically strong students who can apply that strength throughout life.
Students from all walks of life receive a quality education that will make a profound difference in their lives and in their communities. Learning the three R’s and discovering their connection and meaning to the world outside the school walls is creating the kind of strength that only literacy can provide.
Educational force gives birth to new ideas
The educational force brings forth crucial ideas and options to address some of the most serious problems facing the United States and the entire planet. Discovering sustainable solutions to address present and future concerns can only be achieved through continued development of public educationand a dedicated commitment to interactive instruction, engaged learning, and quality graduates.
More than ever, social issues are impacting our students and their search for a meaningful and productive life. Poverty remains a major contributor to academic failure. Among children under the age of 18 in the United States, 41 percent are classified as low income and nearly 19 percent, one in five, consider themselves poor and living in poverty.
Statistics like these represent sobering factors, and in many cases insurmountable in the short term, in achieving the kind of school success necessary to permanently reverse the continuing trend of ‘disadvantaged disengagement‘in our schools. However, through education we find knowledge, and through knowledge comes hope. Hope for the future, and hope for a better life. We find strength.
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do it better.” -Maya Angelou
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