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Strickland asks crowd to share suggestions for education in Ohio
By John Higgins
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland asked some 280 education professionals, students and parents at Akron's North High School on Wednesday night for their ideas of what education should be in the 21st century — not how to fix the current system.
And not how to pay for it. That discussion comes later this year.
After the forum, Strickland said the economic pressures the state is facing extend far beyond school funding. He said he doesn't think the energy and foreclosure crises are just part of a normal cycle of ups and downs.
''Part of what's happening with the economy is, I think, potentially cataclysmic,'' Strickland said. ''Whether or not people will maintain confidence in our financial institutions, whether or not there will be some way to deal appropriately with the energy crisis we face, it's affecting everything. It's not only affecting schools. It's affecting households, it's affecting the ability of people to work and get to work and feed their families.''
However, Strickland asked the audience to set aside the funding question for the moment.
He asked his listeners to consider some of the ideas he's heard lately, such as increasing the amount of time kids spend in school each year, using the apprenticeship to ease new teachers into the classroom and giving principals more control of their budgets.
The event in Akron was the second of a dozen statewide forums Strickland will hold through the summer to seek ideas for education reform. He plans to present lawmakers with his education reforms and funding solutions early next year.
Strickland got an earful about constantly changing testing mechanisms, lack of time teachers spend teaching, the need for more music, art and physical education and other concerns, but he said he was most impressed afterward with what a 16-year-old junior at Buckeye High School in Medina County had to say.
Daniella Chambers said she understood why so much attention was spent on addressing underachieving students, but she didn't fit in that category.
She plans on taking courses at the University of Akron next year and hopes Strickland's education plan addresses children of all abilities.
''I really think that we need to promote the advanced courses and promote getting ahead in your education,'' she said.
Strickland earlier had spoken about one of the six core principles he outlined in his 2008 State of the State Address — developing a specific, personalized education program for each student.
''She said what I tried to say in the first part of this gathering and she said it so well and so convincingly,'' Strickland said. ''And she's an example of a student who should not be constrained by artificial barriers and she's an example of why education should be individualized.''
Multiple disciplines
The first idea he tossed out for the group's consideration was the concept of using multiple disciplines to explore a subject.
He gave the example of a class reading John Steinbeck's Depression-era classic The Grapes of Wrath, which could incorporate geography, history and a science lesson about what causes dust bowls.
But Strickland may start using a lesson from hip-hop music to make that point after his session in Akron.
Donovan Rogers, who teaches an after-school program in the Akron district, told Strickland about how he uses positively themed hip-hop lyrics to teach basic literacy skills.
His group used the lyrics from Kanye West's song Diamonds From Sierra Leone.
''They'll take the actual lyrics from that song and we'll talk about the diamond trade in Sierra Leone and how it's affecting our youth across the country,'' Rogers said. ''So the first thing we'll do is we'll pull out a map and show them where Sierra Leone is on the continent of Africa, so now they're getting a geography lesson, first of all.''
They learn vocabulary words and how to identify nouns, verbs and adjectives.
One of the participants in the program, 15-year-old Marquise Garrett, who attends North High School, earlier told Strickland that the program had opened doors for him.
''It's totally relevant curriculum and they can relate to the subject matter,'' Rogers said.
''You have just described an interdisciplinary approach to education that was a better example than the one I used,'' Strickland said.
Afterward, Strickland took questions from reporters about when he would address the school funding issue, especially in light of the current economy.
Strickland said he will get to that in a second series of conversations this fall, but he wants to know what kind of education system he's funding before he talks to voters about how to pay for it.
''We're going to be more successful if we can say to people, this is what we want to provide educationally, and this is how much we think it's going to cost or how we think it ought to be financed,'' Strickland said. ''I think that's a better argument than just simply implying that we want more money to do whatever we're already doing. We're already spending a lot of money to do what we're already doing.''
He said the economic problems facing the state are bigger than just the schools.
''What's happening in this economy, what's happening with energy costs, what's happening with the mortgage crisis, those are major shifts within our economy,'' he said. ''My personal feeling is that what we're seeing in the economy at this point is not what I would consider the normal ups and downs of economic cycles. I think we are seeing a major shift. The decisions we make now I think are going to be hugely important to how we come out of this and what kind of future we have.''
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland asked some 280 education professionals, students and parents at Akron's North High School on Wednesday night for their ideas of what education should be in the 21st century — not how to fix the current system.
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