I made a quick trip to the Historic Arkansas Museum this morning to deliver 16 small cabinets for my show beginning on Thursday. On the way down, I listened to a radio talk show from North Little Rock in which they were discussing the crisis in Little Rock Schools. It is difficult listening to a grandmother, Mary Jones, who knows by her study of statistics that one or more of her grandchildren will probably end up in jail having not been captured and turned into something more by an educational system that is failing far too many kids.
I wanted to call in and offer my simple formula for engagement. It may seem overly simplistic when the problems are so large, but to enable children to be creative and expressive, making things of useful beauty with their own hands can bring a 180° change in children's lives. But educators and politicians are so far out of touch, my offering is a direction that none consider. And so that is exactly why I keep making the same simple point again and again and again.
Make, fix and create...
You can't make that point too many times, Doug. The same applies here in the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe second sentence of the second paragraph of this post is entirely true and such simple, valuable, necessary information.
ReplyDeleteThank you from two long time readers, workers with children and adults, and people who are inspired each time we come here.