Obama’s Education Speech

I recently blogged about the the Obama education speech on Sep 8th, 2009. I believe that this speech is relevant to all of us, young and old, educated or not. The reason is simple … the U.S., has lost its competitive edge and now lags behind many countries in education and general quality of life.

I feel fortunate to live in Davis, a city that cares about education. In fact, I didn’t know that Davis was one of the top 25 “most educated” cities in the U.S. as reported by CNN Money.com. This would explain why the quality of life is so much higher than the majority of the nation’s cities.

Studies suggest that education is the number one factor in raising the standard of living, as well as elevating people out of poverty. This is the most compelling reason why people should care about the Obama education speech. Consider the opposite option … discouraging our children from pursuing education? How ridiculous of a course is that?

The controversy over the Obama education speech is nothing more than a group of stonewallers who feel they need to cloud every aspect of the Presidency. I would suggest that their time and energy would be better spent on more important issues, such health care and jobs.

I recently finished Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, wherein he discusses the characteristics of success and how that success does not just come from the individual, but also the culture, community and family around him or her. The Obama education speech speaks to the facts presented by in Outliers.

Gladwell states, “The only problem with school, for the kids who aren’t achieving, is that there isn’t enough of it. He goes on to say that the Japanese go to school for 243 days a year and the South Koreans 220 days. There are many other countries with school years far exceeding America’s 180 school days. Mr. Gladwell points to the fact that summer vacation is so indoctrinated into our society that we may never be able to make the shift to more school days.

Again, I feel fortunate to live in a city that puts education first. It’s unfortunate, though, that education is one of the areas that are cut first, from the $1.3 Billion 2009 California budget cut to the $4 Billion 2010 budget cut.

The Chief of California State Schools, Jack O’Connell, once wrote in a press release “We can talk about courage until we’re blue in the face, but courage is just a word until it is supported by the right kind of action. And the right kind of action in this case means protecting education and investing in the future.”

I think that we would all agree that our children are our future … and that quality education is theirs. Let’s just hope that the cards aren’t too stacked up against them.