In the video above, a talk is held by professionals and leaders in the field of education discussing the reasons behind America’s failing education system and ways to fix the problem. The panel includes talk show host Charlie Rose from PBS, John L. Hennessy, president of Stanford University, Cory A. Booker mayor of Newark, Reed Hastings, an active educational philanthropist, Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academ, Kim Smith, co-founder of Bellwether Education, and Claude M. Steele, dean of education at Stanford University.
In the first half of the roundtable, the panelists discuss the problems and the reasons behind the problems in education in America. Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark New Jersey says an that one of the most important factors that play in the continuing failure of American Education is the lack of attention and the lack of protest by the regular populace. American’s believe that if they could just get their own kids to great institutions like Stanford they could get by, and let the other people around them fall down into the spiral of horrible education. Cory Booker says that it is because Americans continue to ignore the issue, that it persists. In fact, this country is inter-dependent and that if we continue to follow this pattern of ” oh, all I have to do is get my own kids through school, and we’ll be fine” then our country is doomed and destined to fail.
Another major issue is the horrible pay and the lack of tools supplied to educators. We expect our teachers to do so much with so very little.
The panelists all say that there is no magic bullet for education, but a possible solution would be highly technological charter schools which focus on individualized learning. Projects like Khan Academy show that learning at an individual pace could help boost children’s performance, and help kids master the science before they are introduced into a new subject.
The only way America will continue being a strong nation is if we are all educated and are able to compete with the rest of the world. It is therefore, our duty to help one another, and help change the education system in America for the better.
by david bassin
