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. 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.
Author Thomas Henry Huxley
wrote: “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 also 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.
