This article's author very adequately cites significant evidence that America's Educational System is STILL not doing so well in a global economy. We are still not competing with other countries. In some ways we are not even close. After so many years of listening to government officials come up with new ways to keep us in the competition and listening, year after year, to the statistics that these ways are not working, is it time to admit we are on the wrong path altogether? How can organizations like Creative Tutors get us on the right path?

Follow up:

We could argue all day about the importance of end of grade testing and No Child Left Behind. Is it necessary? It is not my job as one who is passionate about helping children succeed on an individual level, to pump fire into the policy debate, though I believe policies are very important and hope every parent and educator plays a role in their development. I believe in the end, it starts with the individual child and the big world of problems, opportunities and possibilities awaiting him/her. Organizations like Creative Tutors have to have a bigger picture holistic educational vision in order to incorporate the diversity of learners they serve. They aim to fill the essential gap between policy, systems and the students they serve. Making sure that nobody falls thru the cracks not matter where they are from.

What is clear is that these individual learners I care so much about are growing up in the world of social media, a world that is no longer focused on competitiveness but rather collaboration. IN the Hernando article the author continues to mourn the fact that the US is behind other countries and we need to compete. But One wonders, after failing to compete for so long, is competition really the answer? In the You Tube video, "27 Amazing Facts About How Are World is Fueling the Growth of Social Media Sites Like Facebook and Twitter," www.tweetshock.com , I learned that MySpace, with it's 200 Million members, were an actual country, it would be the fifth largest in the world. That the 1# rank Country for Internet Broadband Penetration is Bermuda. The US is 19th! Clearly this new virtual community, this new virtual WORLD, is changing the boundaries and the old sterotypes about who is on top and where.

We have global problems that will need solved in some of the largest countries in the world. China is so large and has been so closed off from US economy. How can a nation of even the most perfectly educated children in America solve energy problems in a nation they are allowed to spend so little time getting to know. Emerging energy problems that do not honor the political and dialogical boundaries the Chinese and the US honor. Pollution does not compete. Maybe now is the time for us to start celebrating children everywhere who can solve these problems; to humble ourselves as a nation and actively and openly COLLABORATE with successful educational systems to design world standards that will prepare all of our children to take care of all of us. In so many educational settings across the country children are overcoming issues of geographical and political status and learning from other countries. On a microcosmic level, we overcome these competitive hindrances everyday, but our national collective educational philosophy and consequent political agenda still seem to be catered to the divide and conquer mentality of the early to mid 19th century. Perhaps it is time for us to move past our need to win as a Americans and move toward winning and thriving as a world.