nonprofit nation?
Throughout my career, I've learned much, mainly that it's time for change in education and that it can't happen within the rigid, backward-thinking educational box we've built over the decades. I went from knowing nothing about how politics affect our schools, our teachers, our children...to thinking that if I just learned how to "play" politics, I could still achieve the goals that I thought were important. Work the system.The end justifies the means. That was many years ago...
It wasn't until I started working in adult education that I started to see that there was NO WAY I could achieve anything worthwhile within this messed up system and we need to perhaps build another system from scratch. And it's time!
To me, the big picture is that our educational system is being corrupted by capitalism -- more and more money is being poured into education but the teachers don't see any of that money; it goes to textbook and test publishers. Seriously. Legislation is influenced by these publishers.
As this is happening, we lose sight of the teachers and the students!! I want to get back to them. I want to talk about learning, not education. I want to see our youth succeed. I want to bring education back to the local level. Teachers know what they're doing. We need to start listening to them instead of telling them how to do their jobs. We need to allow them to concentrate their efforts on their students.
All the talk about small class size being the answer is ridiculous. Just let teachers do what they do so well, provide meaningful professional development opportunities, and you will find that students will learn. It's not so much about small class size (although that helps) as it is about teachers who know how to use tools like peer learning, group work, and flipped classroom techniques to promote student learning. It's about teachers who help their students take charge of their own learning and who encourage them to help each other learn rather than compete.
It took me a long time to realize that the only way I could achieve my goals was to start a nonprofit. I will never be able to avoid politics but going the nonprofit route is as nonpolitical as it gets for now. Also, the grants I choose to apply for will be community grants, not educational grants. I will have more freedom that way.
As I look for other organizations to partner with, I've noticed that there are a lot of new nonprofits. What's up with that?
I would like to pose the question, What if every person in the US who has thought of starting their own business started a nonprofit instead?
It wasn't until I started working in adult education that I started to see that there was NO WAY I could achieve anything worthwhile within this messed up system and we need to perhaps build another system from scratch. And it's time!
To me, the big picture is that our educational system is being corrupted by capitalism -- more and more money is being poured into education but the teachers don't see any of that money; it goes to textbook and test publishers. Seriously. Legislation is influenced by these publishers.
As this is happening, we lose sight of the teachers and the students!! I want to get back to them. I want to talk about learning, not education. I want to see our youth succeed. I want to bring education back to the local level. Teachers know what they're doing. We need to start listening to them instead of telling them how to do their jobs. We need to allow them to concentrate their efforts on their students.
All the talk about small class size being the answer is ridiculous. Just let teachers do what they do so well, provide meaningful professional development opportunities, and you will find that students will learn. It's not so much about small class size (although that helps) as it is about teachers who know how to use tools like peer learning, group work, and flipped classroom techniques to promote student learning. It's about teachers who help their students take charge of their own learning and who encourage them to help each other learn rather than compete.
It took me a long time to realize that the only way I could achieve my goals was to start a nonprofit. I will never be able to avoid politics but going the nonprofit route is as nonpolitical as it gets for now. Also, the grants I choose to apply for will be community grants, not educational grants. I will have more freedom that way.
As I look for other organizations to partner with, I've noticed that there are a lot of new nonprofits. What's up with that?
I would like to pose the question, What if every person in the US who has thought of starting their own business started a nonprofit instead?
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