College & Career Readiness Is Too Low A Bar

Recent national and worldwide events have challenged my thinking about what we should expect of our schools. Issues related to terrorism, immigration, ISIS, and the recent, inflammatory comments of some of our politicians demand that we aim higher in our schools than graduating students who are “career and college ready.”   The clash of values, philosophies, and the wide range of perplexing problems we face not only as a nation, but also as a planet, demand that our students graduate to be democracy ready. While holding schools accountable for the number of their students who graduate is necessary, it is not sufficient. Somehow, we need to do a better job at inspiring our students to participate in their communities in an active way after they gain their diplomas. A potent statistic worth monitoring is what percent of a school’s graduates vote when they become eligible to do so. We can no longer afford to have only a small percentage of our people determining the future of our entire nation. We cannot rely on only some of us being involved in our vital democratic process. While we might survive if not all our students master algebra, our country’s values will not endure in the absence of active and inclusive participation in our local, state, and national elections. It is this kind of engagement that will raise the probability that our most skillful leaders are the ones who hold office.

We all have to up our political engagement. We have to increase the number of our citizens who partake in dialogue informed debates where powerful exchanges of ideas are the focus, not name calling and shouting at those who disagree with our point of view. Planning for this future will require that all of our students learn to become facile with perspective taking-understanding and appreciating the point of view of others and being able to communicate their own views, particularly when that understanding might differ from that of their elders or peers. This is no small task. It requires thought, clear communication, effective listening, and courage. These are skills we now embrace but often they are disconnected from one of their most important purposes- to strengthen our national values. The real test we need to prepare our students for does not come in the form of a series of numbered problems with exact right answers.   Our very real problems are complex, messy, and are not going to be solved with simple sayings or quick conversations. Managing our dilemmas will require many minds, a multiplicity of different perspectives, and thoughtful and tense dialogue. Whether the issue is climate change, developing sensible approaches to gun safety, or managing our immigration system more effectively, there is much at stake and no simple answers.

 Our students also need to understand that it is not only our soldiers who must demonstrate courage in preserving what we value most. We all have to demonstrate the courage to stand up for what we believe in and perhaps risk our personal and social safety in order to embrace the sacredness of what we value most. Donald Trump’s recent call to bar Muslims from entering this country might make some feel a tad safer but that choice will be gained at the expense of turning our backs on what we stand for as a nation. We all risk becoming deserters of this nation’s values - when we abandon our principles and flee for cover to protect our possessions and ourselves. While as humans we all fail at times to stand up to the bully and take an appropriate stand against wrongdoing, violence, and injustice, we cannot accept those failures as the expected norm. Children, as well as adults, must understand that democracy requires all of us to stand up for our core values, even if it means accepting potential risks.

Math and literacy skills are essential but they cannot be the only skills we embrace or assess. If our students graduate without understanding how history impacts our current predicaments, without learning the skills of respectful debate and perspective taking, and without seeing the connection between active participation in our political process and the vitality of our collective future, democracy will falter.