The Agent of Change We Need for a Worldclass Education

• The role of education in the global economy,
• The importance of a quality preschool experience to academic success.
• The importance of education to America
• Needed changes for a successful 21st century America education,
• The workplace for 21st century teachers,
• The importance of public education to America's mission.

ROLE OF EDUCATION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Senator Obama's revealed his thoughts on education and the global economy with the statements, "Information technology has broken down barriers that once kept countries and markets apart, creating a single global economy that's more integrated and interconnected than before. In this economy, companies can plan their jobs wherever there is an Internet connection and someone willing to work. What matters, is not what you do or where you live, but what you know."

His austere voice made clear that the old methods of employment are passé as he said, "Our children now competes against all the children of the world for jobs. So they must be better educated than those of other nations - especially those who long to change their economic status. The italics supplied by the writer.

QUALITY PRESCHOOL EXPERIENCES, ACADEMIC SUCCESS, BENEFITS TO SOCIETY
Citing long term benefits of quality preschool experiences, Obama promised his administration will invest in early childhood education stating it is known that, "... children in these programs are more likely to score more higher in reading and math; and, because they start school prepared, they are able to keep up, ... they are more likely to graduate high school and more likely to get and keep a job."

EDUCATION: TO MAINTAINING OUR WAY OF LIFE
Obama then underscored the need for an educated America to maintain our way of life with, "America must compete and win if it wishes to maintain its 20th century role as a world leader." To compete against the world and win, he said," America must out educate the world". He clarified this statement with, "If we want to keep building the cars in America, to build our infrastructure, then we cannot watch other nations educate its population as experts in critical field while we lag behind in the production of these same experts."

CHANGES FOR AN EFFECTIVE EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY AMERICA
To compete in the new world, Obama stressed, "Our children must have tools to express themselves and to analyze the world the world they live in." He promised an administration of innovation in education. One that will promote teaching critical thinking skills, team work, effective communications skills, oral as well as written through Powerpoint® presentations and websites; and a renewed emphasis on math and science. He said that the teachers of this new education corps will coach their students on how to acquire and how to use knowledge; rather than be repositories of knowledge. In our new education system, students will be taught to research topics by emailing experts and presenting their finding through their websites and Powerpoint® presentations.

The thrust of an Obama administration's on education are:
• More time is school and more quality summer programs
• Encouraging school programs offering two industrial certifications
• Creating measures to fosters success
• Increase high school students enrollment in AP and college courses
• Among industrial nations, America with the rate of high school graduates
• Continued fundings to successful charters schools
• Closure of poor performing charter schools
• More competition among public schools
• Support of public education

A NEW LANDSCAPE FOR 21ST CENTURY TEACHERS
To deliver the new education program, Senator Obama will charge his administration to:
• Devise methods to recruit, train, and retain 30,000 top talent to teach math, science and special education in distant towns and hard to recruit places,
• Encourage district to assign mentors to beginning teachers,
• Seek teacher designed incentives to reward deserving teachers,
• Seek teacher designed instruments to assess all teachers,
• Encourage districts to support poor performing teachers and replacing them, if they fail to meet the promise of the support.

IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION TO AMERICA'S MISSION
Obama reflected on how an American education had made it possible for many to realize their dreams. He spoke about many crossing the oceans to obtain an American education to accomplish their dream. With the following words he called attention to America's education philanthropy, "When the story of our time is told, I don't want it to be said that China seized the moment to reform its education system, but the United States did not. I don't want it said that India led the way in innovation, but the United States did not. I want it to be said that we rose to meet this challenge, and educated our people to be the most highly skilled workers in the world, just like we have always been; because I know that if we can just bring our education system into the 21st century, if we are looking forward and not backwards, not only will our children be able to fulfill their God given talent, ..." Continuing he said, "At this defining moment we will do, what previous American generations have done, and unleash the promise of our people, and unlock the promise of our country and make sure that America remains a beacon of opportunity and prosperity for all the world."

Obama pledged his administration to continue this educational legacy, by vowing to provide, a $4000 tax credit for those who have the will and the grades to attend college, provided that student agrees to serve his community or his country. Then, returning to reform of the K-12 infrastructure, Obama pledged to fix No Child Left Behind and to provide the financial resources for proper functioning.

To hear the entire speech, visit