Before the change we really need in public education can emerge, we must acknowledge the huge, increasing disconnect that exists between this outdated secondary school model, to which even the best public and private schools cling, and the realities of today’s world. In short, the future of our children – and our nation – depends on the introduction of a genuinely new model of secondary education, designed in and fit for the 21st century.

By many measures much of the rest of the industrialized world has caught or passed by us in secondary education. The good news, however, is that those who are beating us in the education race are doing so with the same old model we use; they too haven’t moved into the 21st century. So, if we act now to take the initiative to create a new, 21st century secondary school model, then our high school graduates can once again become the best educated in the world. Thus, the leadership we need from President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan must include moving us beyond our myopic focus on attempts (noble and otherwise) to fix that which clearly needs replacing.

Alan Shusterman, Founder
School for Tomorrow
http://www.schoolfortomorrow.net