John, that conversation needs more than education leaders to be effective.

Prominent individuals from every part of society — government, civil rights, philanthropy, entertainment, business, sports, the media and more must participate. And the conversation must encompass both the public and the private benefits of education. It can’t just be jawboning, like “everybody should go to college.” Nor can it be attached only to conventional institutions. On the private side, it’s about becoming ready to support oneself and one’s family, to be a good citizen, a good neighbor and a contributing member of society. On the public side, it’s about economic growth, national security, cultural cohesion and a safe, orderly and yet free society.

Checker,  I fully agree that this conversation needs many other leaders from many other sectors, both public and private. My only point of departure would be to add that we also need a deeper conversation about social safety nets and yet-to-be documented youth in our schools. The value of a good education, in my opinion, is not relegated to just those currently protected by citizenship.

John, there’s a vast awareness gap.

Business leaders, macro-economists and policy types grasp the dire effects on our economy of a failing education system — far more serious over the long haul than off-shoring semi-skilled jobs in the manufacturing and retail sectors. Consider the newest eatery near my Washington, D.C. office. Cunningly named eatsa, it has few human employees. It’s profoundly automated. But it required very clever and well-educated people to invent, finance and launch it. We know — most vividly from the recent presidential election — that millions of Americans are upset about the loss of traditional manufacturing jobs. We’re aware of the president’s swift, high-visibility moves to deter more such losses.

Yet, the future strength of the U.S. economy won’t rest on those kinds of jobs. Most of it will hinge on what people can do with their brains, and that hinges on education. Sadly, and ominously, however, this understanding has not yet changed minds or behaviors. A consciousness-raising campaign is needed, and it has to go from abstractions about “the need for a well-educated populace” to concrete recognition by individual families that this applies to their kids.

Checker, I concur. This is a worry for me as well. I fear that a huge awareness campaign alone may backfire if it is not coupled with concrete action that our lawmakers and citizen leaders can and must take. I also believe this needs to be presented in terms of gains and opportunities and not losses. I feel, like you said, that type of thinking was part of the outcome of the recent national election(s) at many levels of offices, not just the presidency.

John, let me count the ways!

Actually, I cannot, as they’re innumerable. We should keep the policy framework that rests on the pillars of standards and accountability and choice. Operationalizing both of those will need to change, however, as we head toward personalized learning and multiple providers of learning — the 24/7 kind, not just the kind that takes place in schools.

Truly personalizing — rather than batch-processing — the education of millions of children, means striking a very complicated balance in a society that values both the public good of an educated people and the need for
commonality across many skills, knowledge and other attributes like honesty and patriotism.

It also demands disrupting just about everything in the conventional structures and delivery of primary-secondary education. For example, personalization means no longer putting all 10-year-olds in fifth grade. And organizing academic standards along with assessment and accountability regimes into something more flexible and adaptable than grade levels.

Checker, well, there you have it: agreement!

As we know, the opportunities are in the details. This exchange drove home for me the dire need for
civil conversations among those who differ, at times, in beliefs and approaches, seeking to understand in order to forge ways toward solving serious and vexing problems in our society.