We are still justifiably trying to figure out why so many students are performing so poorly in schools, what we can do to transform teaching and learning, what accounts for the sharp decline in high school graduation rates, and how we can reclaim our nation’s academic prominence at the K-12 levels, just to name a few of our concerns about the state of public schools in America. Did the world change that much over just a couple of decades? Have our culture and priorities shifted in such a way that we’ve forgotten that a strong educational system has been the foundation for our global preeminence? Who dropped the ball? Did our national commitment to educational access and equity for all children change? These are all rhetorical questions that describe the education quagmire that continues to befuddle and mesmerize anyone who is even remotely concerned about the future for the younger generation. It’s not fair to say that our young people are more distracted and care more about being “cool.” Generations of students have always cared about being “cool” and socially acceptable, and distractions are not a new phenomenon. The difference today is that media and technology have provided young people with sophisticated tools for communicating and sharing with each other. What’s also different now is that parents and educators have fallen behind the students in terms of understanding how young people view and organize their academic and social lives. The adults must continue to embrace the positive aspects of social media and networking because there are infinite ways of using these phenomena to more fully educate and train students academically, socially, and culturally.

Are our challenges in public education more a function of the adults’ inability to properly interpret the shifts and changes going on around us all? Are the adults so unwilling to move beyond the status quo and tradition in education that they will fail to embrace the kinds of new teaching and learning methodologies that can be tailored especially for a generation of students who will learn, create, develop, and communicate in an era of technological explosion? Are we missing opportunities to advance elementary and secondary education to levels that reflect the realities of this century?  Is it ultimately the grownups in the room who are the ones stunting the academic success of the younger generation, and not the youngsters’ antipathy toward education or the so-called distractions and preponderance of media and technology in their lives? W e know from years past that parents, classroom teachers, school officials, and the larger communities are responsible for role modeling and setting the stage for our youth as they define their priorities and interests in life. This hasn’t changed – we just need to step up to the plate and be honest with ourselves and the young people who we must steward and teach so that they can be successful leaders, citizens, and managers in a world that will be unlike what we have known to date. Our youth deserve courageous leaders who are willing to step aside or step down and allow education innovators and entrepreneurs to come in and implement the kinds of teaching and learning practices that reflect fresh ideas and perspectives. At the end of the day, the guardians of our youth must do the hard work to create the right academic solutions for a generation of students who are indeed gifted and talented, but may only respond academically to innovative teaching and learning that incorporate the tools that have become indispensable to them.