Oprah.com post r.e. Waiting for Superman Tue 9/28/2010 2:23 PM

I am a 29-year veteran teacher; I attribute many of Education's problems to a flawed values and beliefs system. Call it a negative spiral where all parties are guilty of believing that kids cannot achieve, teachers are ineffective, & parents do not care. This vacuum of negativity drains the energy out of schools and resources. I have kept a 29-year journal of outrageous beliefs and behaviors out of so-called professionals, parents, booster organizations, and students. I have titled it The Problem in American Education: People Behaving Badly! These beliefs and behaviors have chipped away at the foundation of Education until it has crumbled around us. Granted, I can also share encounters with hundreds of wonderful people throughout my career, yet this post is to dissect why many of our schools are failing. If we as educators believe that students cannot achieve based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or test scores, then we produce a product based on that belief: a failure. If we believe that all students can achieve given the right direction and choices, then we will produce a high achieving student regardless of the aforementioned factors. Exclusive schools are based on exclusion; inclusive education is based on inclusion of all. The strength of our diversity of people & talents make our country strong. When we espouse our own self-serving agendas, ethnocentric motivations, & political platforming, we forget: E pluribus unum, "Out of many, one...great nation.