We believe Education in America should be enhanced and more well-rounded.

Volunteer work :

For one, we would like to see at least one-third of all school curriculum being volunteer work out in the community. I want my children learning as much, if not more, about social justice, as I do them learning about math, science, English...

We think the community volunteering would do two things. First, it would unleash a tremendous amount of help to communities and to social problem areas. Two, it would tremendously increase a youth's sense of priorities. It did for Suzanne Feely, who we interviewed in Freehold, New Jersey.

Notre Dame High School, which Feely attended, requires 10 hours of community volunteer service a year. Feely did 137. She worked with the poor at a shelter, with teenage mothers with AIDS, with runaway youth. It changed her, she told us. She's now thinking about a career in Social Services. She wasn't before.

More aids :

When students are in the classroom, we think they need more individual attention and the primary teachers need more supplemental help.

In Gallup, New Mexico, we interviewed Priscilla Smith, former president of Gallup's School Board. She said students these days are so burdened with policing activities, study halls and paper work, that they don't have much energy to, well, to teach.

Her answer, and ours, is to have many more student aid positions.

Learning teams :

Beyond the aids, we would also like to see the development of "learning teams." In Yellow Springs, Ohio, at Antioch College, professor Cheryl Keene explained high schools in Rhode Island are experimenting with learning teams comprised of the student, advisor, family member and community mentor. They meet regularly to discuss class choices, progress, career thoughts...

The more people you draw in, the more help to the student, and the more interest in the school system by the general community, not just the parents.

Work / Study :

While at Antioch College, we also interviewed Eric Miller, assistant professor of Cooperative Education. Miller explained students at Antioch go to school for a term, then go work as an intern, or apprentice, in their field of interest -- with businesses Antioch has developed relationships with.

We think this is a much more sane approach, both in high school and at a collegiate level, because it gives youth a much more hands on feel for their field, what areas they want to focus on, and for that matter, whether they want to change fields.

Cultural Study :

At Ganzaga University in Spokane, Washington, we interviewed professor Bob Bartlett, head of the Cultural Affairs program there. He said in-depth courses on different cultures should be introduced as early as possible in a youth's education.

We agree. America is a melting pot with people from so many cultures. It only makes sense... common sense.

Vocation :

While in Dayton, Ohio, we looked at the University of Dayton's "Chaminade Program." The program is oriented toward getting students to look at career choice as a: "vocation choice." That is, how can the student best use their talent for: the "common good?"

Program Director Maura Skills told me credit courses at UD have students looking at such topics as: how to build communities that will positively impact society. Students in the program also get involved with a variety of "sevice learning projects" like: helping at a homeless shelter; in a community garden; at a Boys & Girls Club...

Some students in the program recently had spenttheir Spring Break volunteering in an economically depressed area of Lumberton, New Mexico.