"I Believe"

I have been wearing the blue rubber bracelet of late from 2008 TFI/Albany, New York, that was given to attendees and reads: "I Believe..."  My 12-year old daughter Haley noticed, liked what she saw, and asked if the bracelet was authentic, I replied affirmatively.  She then asked to read the back of the bracelet to see where it was made.  Her response:  "yes it is real because it was made in China." 

 

So goes America of late.  Whether we struggle to find our way in Iraq and Afghanistan, or seemingly stumble incoherently from one international crisis to those caused by nature -- possibly angered by man's disrespect of God's gift  -- to a financial meltdown in our nation, the challenge that America faces loom broad and large.  Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America" that the well spring of the American community and democracy is its 'self-interest properly understood.  De Tocqueville saw that the genius of the United Stated didn't rest on the exceptional virtue of its individual citizens, but on the nations ability to encourage typical people to identify their self-interest with that of the larger community and to summon the best within by appealing to selflessness.  This is the genius and promise of America. 

 

Recapturing the promise of America is recognizing that the words we use, the values and vision we hold are fundamental to any democracy.  Our children deserve nothing less than leadership in challenging times. 

And most importantly, our children deserve an educational system which recognizes learning and teaching as the glue which binds our democracy into a beautiful tapestry embracing the common good.  There is no more important enterprise in America than education.  If we are to solve the challenges of a diverse and global markets, we must understand that at the core of a successful democracy is an educated population.  One which understands critical thinking and  literacy as well as financial literacy.  One that enables a respect for cultural differences as well as high intellectual performance. 

 

The research and practice emerging from neuroscience, cognitive science, philosophy and linguistics has cleared the landscape sufficiently to recognize that teaching is the center of the combination of policies, programs, practices and beliefs that lifts and accelerates a nation's most important resource -- its' human capital as well as its' natural resources.  Each sustainable if carefully cultivated and nourished.  This then is our challenge.  How we fashion our educational systems is the challenge of the 21st century.  It is not, at its core solving the ravages of financial markets.  It is recognizing that financial success emerges when citizens are properly educated to use private power for the public good.  No longer can we view socio-cultural-economic, education and political systems as mutually exclusive.  Each relies on the other for the sustainability of a nation.   This combination of efforts is demanding, but it is doable and long overdue.

 

Eric J. Cooper

www.nuatc.org    

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