Dear Editor,

We are all social beings that develop; therefore, if we are not connected to the systems in society that will support our positive development we will connect to those that support negative development.

The root of social ills in our country can be traced to our educational system. It starts in our home when we begin to compare children as smart or dumb. The “dumb” child feels worthless and his self-esteem is deflated; this sets him up to live the self-fulfilling prophecy of “I can’t!”

In comes formal schooling where important life values such as caring, sharing, ethics, love, collaboration, civility, and respect are not fostered in affirming students’ self-worth. However, these are principles that are valuable to the development of positivity in society.

There are over seven billion people in our universe with no two fingerprints matching, yet schools see success as mere intellectual progress. We are all gifted differently, but if we continue to use a one-size-fits-all measure we will continue to turn away those gifted differently. It is the responsibility of schools to help students to identify their purpose or gifts instead of sacrificing the students’ personal development.

In the 1960s our students were more connected to their education because they were told what they were good at and not about what they could not do. An example of this was the non-scientific assessment of “Paul head cannot take the book,” this was simply saying that Paul is a hands-on learner. Many of our current engineers and builders were discovered through this method.

Let us help our students by positively affirming them so that they avoid connecting the negative influences by educating (from educare) instead of cramming information. Let’s do it together.

Linton Smith

Founder

Delta Learning Systems

linton@pcsdelta.org