Wanted: An Educational Heimlich Maneuver

The beginning of a school year is always a great time to review my precepts of change and my vision of education in America. And this is information that is going to konk three of us between the eyes.

Precept Number One: Schools and teachers (including administrators), we have to stop putting the kids to sleep! Few things are going to be more destructive to the kid's brains, or anyone's brain, than activities, voices, assignments, topics, deliveries, structures, schedules, etc. that are not challenging, novel, and markedly different than what we've been sloshing to them since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, or at least the 1970s. Schools and teachers must start studying the brain and what flavors of these things that are not on the menu that should be. The information is out there, let's go find it and start using it! Start with Eric Jensen's Enriching the Brain if you're disoriented.

Precept Number Two: Parents, and I'm hoping this is a minority of us, we absolutely need to drop our sense of entitlement and elitism in our approach to the services we think our wonderful, exceptional children are not getting. Most of the time, it is pitched as what's good for the kid when it really is a puffing of the chest for what's good for Mom or Dad. Look at your child's natural brain lead! Let his or her natural tendencies guide you in guiding them. Don't take a Tom Sawyer and turn him into a Mr. Rogers! Don't take a lily and turn it into a petunia; It won't work anyway. It doesn't mean you lower your expectations, but it does require an effort at helping them build their lives, not yours. Following their lead a bit more will help. Dr. Mel Levine's A Mind at a Time may be a great place to begin.

Precept Number Three: Kids, there is a higher chance of the Pope turning Jewish than you succeeding...unless you fall in love with hard work. You must come to love difficult things, and you must come to understand that difficulty is a fertilizer for growth. If something is acquired easily or cheaply, then it is simply something that was easy or cheap to begin with! Muscle won't grow without momentary failure with heavy weights and for you it is no different. Your issues are real to be sure. Pop culture and the media is slapping you numb with its fascination for stupidity, let alone mediocrity. Please, start reading biographies of eminent Americans! You'll find all the recipes for success you'll ever need in a well-written account of these men and women. And they are very interesting, too! Start reading these and you'll start discovering paths you may personally want to follow! Take charge of your life! Begin building a life centered around your own desires, interests, and abilities!

I don't want to over-simplify a difficult issue, but I'm not going to sit around and wait for this great country of ours to drop dead, like we choked on the hot dog of irresponsibility and blame. All of us need to raise our standard.