Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
Aaahhh ... it’s that time of year again. Graduation time!
I will be in Colorado attending my grandson’s graduation and will be attending more graduations when I return to Texas. Being invited to ceremonies of graduates other than relatives gives me great pride – and a realization that I must do more to help our youth acquire knowledge so they can have the good life that I have enjoyed.
For more than 35 years, it has been my pleasure to help in the formal education of young people. I know now that we educators were not meeting the needs of many of our students. There was too much of an emphasis on what we and the parents thought the students should do – and not enough of what the students wanted.
In many ways, we are failing our students and we are failing ourselves in the process. The education that people my age and Generation X is no longer good enough for today’s youth. We can no longer rely on the old tools if we want this and the following generations to make the U.S. what we once were – the educational leader of the world.
It is important to the nation that our students have the best education possible; it is also vital to maintaining a vibrant and exciting local community. The community that maintains its educational system at the 20th century level is a community that will die – a town of people remembering the “good old days” as they think they were, and be passed up by the rest of the world.
Communities need to move their schools into the 21st century. The school built in the 1950s or 1960s is no longer adequate to meet the needs of a modern educational system. You cannot teach 21st century techniques on equipment that was designed for the ’50s. New schools must be built with new equipment so that teachers may teach with the the means to acquire knowledge.
A vibrant community also must provide the means for continuing education. We all know that the typical graduate of high school today will probably change his or her actual occupation five to seven times in their lives. Communities must provide the opportunity to make those transitions.
A modern library is absolutely essential for any community wanting to keep its young people and to attract companies that pay more than minimum wage. Companies these days no longer look at a work force that meets their immediate needs. They look for a community that is forward thinking and has opportunities for its employees to grow intellectually and to acquire skills outside the job. The community that provides library facilities that will enhance those needs will grow and attract companies that will stay in the community.
To keep these talented graduates in our towns we have to provide students and teachers with a way to maximize their talents.
You can say the school you attended is good enough – as it was in the 20th century. It will be good enough to attract those minimum wage jobs that fade away the next time another city offers a better tax break. The library you have will be good enough for those who want to read a book or go to a meeting; it won’t be good enough to help educate workers who need to upgrade skills or learn a new occupation.
Emphasize the past alone and that is where you will stay. But give our young people the tools they will need – and they will grow the jobs and the community for the future.
