Public education in America is in big trouble. “The nation’s 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent,” according to a report by America’s Promise Alliance. That was 10 years ago. Today, in Philadelphia alone, a mere 22 percent of the senior class will graduate on time. Our schools need help.
Humans are pre-wired at birth to learn. During the first year, a baby’s brain will double in size. By age three, a child’s brain will reach 80 percent of its adult volume. Numerous studies have shown that when children under five are exposed to a normal, nurturing, yet stimulating environment, their brain develops much like a sponge, able to soak up and process new information at a rate much faster than in adulthood.
Year two and three in a normally developing child’s brain sees synapses – brain connections between neurons – forming faster than at any other time. Typically at that age, the brain will develop twice as many synapses as it will create in adulthood. The ubiquitous nature of these brain-growing connections make this time in a child’s life fertile ground for learning.
Genetics play a key factor in brain development beginning shortly after conception. However, during a child’s early years external experiences begin to play a larger role in learning, development and education. Children exposed to negative stress, poverty, neglect and maltreatment are subject to educational challenges that could have lifelong consequences.
Traditional classroom environments are not equipped with the state-of-the-art technology needed to actively engage today’s generation of students. In a world filled with interactive connections, focusing on one-way conversations can be challenging for most kids. Children dealing with daily life struggles can find such lessons not only uninspiring, but not worth their time.
21st-century education requires 21st-century tools. Teachers need tools to teach, students need tools to learn. For students to learn, they must be engaged. Many low-income students have no access to computers other than at school. Many schools do not have enough access to computers due to lack of resources.
Without technology, students get bored. When they get bored, they lose interest and begin to fail. Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60 percent of their students. Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school throughout the United States. That’s one student every 26 seconds, or 7,000 a day.
With school failure, life failure often follows. In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75 percent of crimes. In contrast, high school graduates will earn about $200,000 more than dropouts over their lifetime. College graduates will earn about $1,000,000 more.
Today’s modern vision of success-based education encompasses state-of-the-art ‘Touch Response Technology’ in the form of Interactive Flat Panels. Flat Panels provide students and teachers a more interactive avenue of teaching and learning. Students stay engaged, take interest in their subjects and begin to experience success.
Education is key to giving people a stronger foundation for developing value within themselves and in the eyes of others. Transforming hopelessness into hopefulness is what quality education does.
Source by Gary G Sweet
#Quality #Childhood #Education #Critical #Success education
