The beginning of a new school year is a good time to ask ourselves and our teachers, "Are we preparing our students for the challenges of the 21st century?" Do not answer too quickly.
The world has always had its tribulations and challenges. Even a cursory reading of history tells the story of war, famine, pestilence, political corruption, economic upheaval, terrorism, paganism, atheism, idolatry, and immorality. Evil and suffering have plagued the human experience since the Fall.
What, if anything, is different now? After all, Solomon said there is "nothing new under the sun."
Although the nature of the challenges are not necessarily new, what is new is the magnitude and global nature of what confronts us and our children. An economic downturn in one part of the world spreads around the globe. Rising demand for oil affects families and economies worldwide. Air travel can transform an epidemic into a global pandemic in a matter of weeks. A nuclear device carried in a suitcase can destroy an entire city of millions. Changing the chemical mixture of gasoline to 10% ethanol in the U.S. can spread hunger in the third world as the price of corn for livestock and human consumption rises. Mass media and the Internet accelerate cultural change through the propagation of alien and often degenerate ideas and mores.
Our children face another insidious challenge--global literacy rates. This danger is less obvious. It is difficult to see the danger. Its impact is so gradual that by the time American students, parents, and teachers become aware of the danger it may well be too late.
Like the proverbial frog in the kettle, our educational and economic vitality is ebbing away. 
Whereas the U.S. and Western countries had a near monopoly on high literacy rates, world-class institutions of advanced education, and sophisticated research centers, that is no longer true.
The rest of the world is catching up, has caught-up, or is passing us--and fast!
As the graph below illustrates, U.S. students are performing relatively poorly against most industrialized and industrializing countries.
To put the global educational challenge into perspective, I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch the following video clips.
Short Trailer
Extended Documentary
So How Do We Prepare Our Teachers to Prepare Our Students?
The scope of a blog article is too limited to flesh this issue out completely but I offer the following for your consideration.
- Pray, asking the Lord for wisdom.
- Seek the wise counsel of others.
- Research the facts.
- Shake yourself and your staff out of any complacency that may exist. Review the international achievement data and remind your staff that the fact that our students may score above the national norms is not good enough. Measuring our students against national norms is measuring against a low standard relative to global achievement levels. Being "good" is not good enough.
- Order the 2 Million Minutes DVD and show it to your staff. For more information visit the 2 million minutes web site.
- Do not countenance excuses such as "They (Indians and Chinese) students are not creative, they do not have balanced lives like our kids." Those are myths: convenient excuses that encourage self-delusion.
- Proclaim the theological/moral imperative for excellence. We have a stewardship responsibility to prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century and a responsibility to equipment them to contribute to ameliorating human suffering as an act of loving their neighbor.
- Have them read The World is Flat and incorporate the reading into your in-service training program. Engage in Socratic dialog over the book.
- Inspire your staff to Aspire to the Extraordinary in what they teach and how they teach. Work with your teachers to reduce the percentage of lecturing that comprises classroom instruction. The following chart shows the relative ineffectiveness of lecturing as a means of teaching for mastery.
- Have selected students and teachers take the Third World Challenge Exam. (Click on the picture to access the exams) How do they do?
- Develop a three year academic/instructional improvement plan and align financial resources to support the plan.
- Measure results! Without concrete measures of performance and accountability systemic change will not happen. Good intentions and vision are no substitutes for results.
- Train, encourage, and train some more. Stick with it. Avoid training dejour.
- Work hard. Excellence is not easy-but it is the only goal worthy of our Lord, of our calling, and of our students.
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