Would anybody like some change?

As I often do, I speak with my wife about issues and theories related to
education. Though my wife is not a full time teacher, she does teach
as an adjunct professor at a local community college. Thus, I feel she
is knowledgeable and a worthy audience when discussing educationally
related topics.

Our most recent discussion revolved around how education needs to be
more effective and applicable to the ever changing needs of the student
population. There are so many fantastic things going on in education,
and at times I am extremely proud to call myself an educator.
Unfortunately, there are other times where I am not so proud of some
things done in education. Looking at education with a glass half full
approach, we can be encouraged because there is always room to change and improve the way we conduct our business as educators.

One of the beauties of being in education is we have the right and
obligation to be change agents. We go to work every day looking for new
ways of improving education. That is our job...make education as
relevant, applicable and as necessary as possible to prepare students to
be successful in their lives in the future.

I prepared a presentation about change and how we can all be change
agents. My wife had one question for me, "Don't you think you are
asking too much of educators?" When I thought about how I would answer
this question, I realized the answer was simple. "No," I am not asking
too much of educators, because our duty and job as educators is to do
what it takes to get the job done. Just as society and students have
changed, we need to change and evolve to ensure we are positively
affecting our students. We need to change the culture of education and
make sure we are reaching all of our students preparing them to be
lifelong learners and successful democratic citizens.