Radio Commentary
There is no
thrill quite like the one that comes from mastering a challenge.
Remember
the first time you realized the marks on a page were words, and you could
understand them?
Or
the first time you looked through a microscope, played an instrument, or
understood what someone was saying in another language?
U.S.
schools seek to give that same opportunity to every child every day by helping
students set high standards and specific goals.
Education
also gives students life skills like self-discipline, patience, and knowledge
about the importance of sharing, for example. Students learn to pay attention
when others are speaking.
Many schools also teach children how to
solve disagreements through conflict resolution. Extracurricular activities,
from student government offices to volunteer projects, also offer chances to
learn life skills.
Wrote
author Tomas Henry Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of education is
the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when they ought to
be done, whether you like it or not.”
And
former Xerox CEO David Kearns added: “Education not only imparts the great
lessons of history, citizenship, and science, it teaches people to think, to
solve problems, to take risks, to be an entrepreneur, and an innovator.”
That
is, in fact, the great strength of the American public school system and always
has been. It deserves our support.
