The lack of focus on education these days is very concerning and something that we need to come together and address. I find it insane that educators are payed so poorly and forced to work so much. I have grown up with lots of family in education and cannot believe the amount of work that has to be put in for lesson planning and grading at home in the middle of the night. This would be unacceptable at pretty much any other regular job. The passion required to pursue such a career is taken advantage of and teachers are pushed to the point of burn out.
I know we have amazing educators out there waiting to have profound impacts on the lives of our children but are being stifled by the lack of resources. And are often forced to make the decision to purchase supplies to get the kids at school what they need or to get stuff that their own kids need. No one should ever have to make this decision, teachers should be given the supplies they need to teach AND to live. We need to pay teachers significantly more money and ensure that schools have more then enough supplies for the teachers and the kids (Including school lunches for all kids free of charge).
Education is the path forward to solve all of these many problems that we face. To be educated is to remove ignorance and it is through the removal of ignorance that we free the world from fear. That admittedly is not entirely true but I do believe that just by getting educated we cool the temperatures down across the country (US) and start to understand what changes we can all make to improve our world together.
To do this successfully I believe we need to have a fundamental shift in the approach to education or at the very least a new foundational piece added to the other aspects of education (ie math, science). We need to teach how to learn. Yes I mean in general the process of how to learn. How to take that spark of curiosity you get about something and pull the thread until you have gained the insight you were looking for. Giving real world examples of what is out there in the world to learn could help foster that spark into those that may not have any right away.
Anyways I am starting to ramble the main points to recap… We need to pay teachers more, give them and the kids all of the supplies they need and restructure our educational system to teach kids how to learn and what awesome problems out there need their help to solve!
Amen.