Although this paper does not require extensive hours of research, analysis, or intellectual capacity, it was equally as challenging on a deeper personal level. The one-week I have attended staff training at Bridge Builders in Montgomery, has been overwhelming, intense, incomprehensible, and incredible. Therefore, attributing to the challenging nature for writing such a paper.
Many of my expectations for Bridge Builders are a result of my experience with Camp Anytown, which I attended after my sophomore year in high school. Anytown was a youth leadership-development program that is specifically devised to reduce prejudice and conflict, and to prepare youth to become leaders of a diverse community. After being accepted into this intensive week long spend the night program, I along with high school kids from various religious, racial, ethnic, and economic background of Birmingham, joined together in a life-changing experience. Although Anytown prepared me to flourish in a diverse community, I never really had the opportunity to enact these skills due to Mountain Brook’s homogenous environment. However, it did establish skills that empowered me to take on leadership responsibilities around the community. Though I was aware that both Anytown and Bridge Builders shared a common purpose, I also knew the process to achieve such will be significantly different.
One personal expectation I hope to achieve as a result of this program is that of becoming a more effective leader. When one experiences a transformation, it is often a result of life experiences. I hope for this program to aid my peers and myself in a positive transformation. I firmly believe that one must initially develop essential skills and understanding before adequately...
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...he past years has been the decline of educated citizens in our country. We have quickly been surpassed by many nations in terms of literacy, intelligence, and resources to education. It is the foundation in America for a quality future in terms of employment, equality, social stratification, and ending the cycle of poverty. In addition, it is key to the growth and development of our nation. Although every child has access to public education, there is a vast difference between education and quality education. In addition, with insurmountable college fees, the ability to earn a degree, which is almost necessary to have an upper level career, is definitely a challenge. The struggle to provide every citizen a quality education has been a never-ending problem in our country, and it will take major economic, cultural, and political changes to revolutionize the system.
America has not changed it’s educational system in over two hundred years. For this reason, our students and population are falling further and further behind. Our society has done nothing but move forward, so why hasn’t our learning? Everybody has a story, opinion, or response to education. We need to invest in refining our tools to succeed, to create a better sense of self, and a stronger, more well-rounded nation. The American educational system is hurting students by passing them without merit and relying on standardized tests; however, many are now running back to these hollowed halls to ensure better futures.
Dr. Tanisha L. Heaston, principal of Treadwell Elementary talks to me about educational change. In my first meeting and interview with her, she displays many if not all the leadership benchmarks of a Change Master and Facilitator. Defined by McEwan (2003), a Change Master is a highly effective principal who is flexible and futuristic. A realistic leader who is able to both motivate and manage change in an organized, positive, and enduring fashion. As a Change Master, she uses a situational approach since every school community requires somewhat different skills. Dr. Heaston respects change resisters, procures resources for her school, and trusts her teams which aligns with ISLLC Standard Six.
The need for education is a massive problem that the United States is facing in the current day. According to the United Way’s web...
Education is the backbone of most nations. Proper teaching to students ensure things such as better technology, better fund distributions, running operations like businesses, military training, and the government. Sadly, our nation is very low on the ladder when it comes to education. Students First has pointed out that most children are reading below their grade level, are respectively the 20th and 27th best nation when it comes to Math and Science, and there is no signifigant change. Americans are however getting an education, though lower than against other nations America still are able to make a living with their lives. There is much needed improvement, but at least Americans are not completely ignorant. Citizens can make a living with their lives and though not as intelligent as someone from Korea or Japan there is no way to dispute that our education system is doing
Education has been the pathway to a better life for many years now. It is full of opportunity for many Americans. Education is not for every child but it is necessary in the early part of kids’ lives to learn the important things. Thanks to our government, we have public education in which we have free kindergarten through 12th grade. Public education is paid by through our taxes. Because of this, the government runs the schools and that can cause some problems. There will always be room for improvement in the public education system. I think the biggest thing we can do to improve K-12 schooling right now, is to go to a year round school year schedule.
Education is the key, and the power source to our future. Living in this day in time, no human should settle for less and not want to attain higher
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
Education has always been in existence in one form or another. As each child is born into this world regardless of who or where they are born, life lessons immediately begin. He/she will learn to crawl, walk, and talk by the example and encouragement of others. Although these lessons are basic in the beginning they evolve as the child grows. However, the core learning method of a child does not change. Learning from others, they will watch, listen, and then act for themselves. Thomas Jefferson believed that an education would lead men and women to the ability to be self-governed and become positive contributors to society (Mondale & Patton, 2001). Today, we can see how true this is by the examples of others. Those that are given the opportunity for education are more likely to find jobs and develop skills that not only improve a community, but influence the economic growth of their nation (Ravitch, Cortese, West, Carmichael, Andere, & Munson, 2009, p. 13). On the other hand, if an education is not provided to individuals, they can become a hindrance to that nation’s growth.
Even our President Barack Obama has spoken about how important it is to make sure the children are being educated to their fullest. Learning the ability to think critically and problem-solve gives way towards national prosperity. Book, Higher Education. It is easy to see that there is a strong urge to get the best education you can receive for a reason. Education is and will always be an important factor in our society....
I see myself developing into this type of leader by working to create valuable and positive change and empowering others to become leaders that also create valuable and positive change that they believe in. I will empower others to gain a sense of identity and self to the mission, be a role model that inspires others, challenge others to take ownership of their work, and provide understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of others. To be a transformational leader I will need to display the ability to communicate clearly, listen, collaborate, empower, build strong healthy relationships, and provide others with intellectual stimulation.
President Ronald Reagan once described America as, “A Nation at Risk,” He was addressing this statement to the education department thirty years ago and meant it as a wake-up call. He was aware that the United States was falling behind in education and needed to take action in order to prevent the demise of the country. Reagan correctly predicted the grim fate of America if education did not see improvement. Today, research finds that American education is failing to provide the necessary skills to succeed in college and various careers. The quality of education in America is a growing issue and every year graduate students are finding it more difficult to obtain high paying jobs and start his or her career. According to studies conducted globally, the curriculum in America is not as advanced and years behind international schools in countries such as China and Japan. There is much controversy in government over what can be done to reverse the situation in public schools but possible solutions that have been suggested are hiring more qualified teachers, more classroom time, and investing more money into education.
Transformational leaders want individuals to make a positive change in their lives and try to help people apply a positive change on a daily basis. The leaders do this by implementing individual considerations which, according to Kendrick (2011), “treats each follower as a unique contributor and provides coaching, mentoring, feedback and growth opportunities.” This makes such an impact on people because each individual is getting different mentoring, feedback, and growth opportunities due to their unique personality. It is very important for each person to have this because everyone has a different learning ability and motivation. This helps each individual with their own distinctive endeavor.
The author has designed the personal learning plan around the diagnosis of his learning needs, statement of specific learning objectives, learning resources and strategies, evidence of accomplishment, how the evidence will be validated, and how the learning will be evaluated. I will concentrate on the five disciplines: Systems Thinking, Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Visions, and Team Learning introduced by Peter M. Senge. This will allow me to expand my leadership abilities at my current job as well as jobs that I may hold in the future. What distinguishes leaders is the clarity and persuasiveness of their ideas, the depth of their commitment, and the extent of their openness to continually learning more. They do not "have the answer," but they seem to instill confidence in those around them that, together, "we can learn whatever we need to learn in order to achieve the results we truly desire" (Senge, 2006). Senge is explaining to us the importance of being open and to expand our knowledge. That is why every leader and employee should create a learning plan, so that they can understand as much about themselves. This allows them not only to believe in themselves, but others to believe in them as well.
Attending public schools as a child, I remember learning the basic skills on how to add and subtract, read, and write. These basic skills are necessary in order to function in our society and work force in the United States. As we all know each child learns differently, some learn faster than others and some slower than others. Our public schools have become overcrowded and we do not have enough teachers to fit the needs of each student. Some students get left behind and are not learning the skills needed to move on to the next level. What these students are not learning they can learn in higher education such as a college or university. In this report, I would like to express the importance of a higher education. I will use the works of John Henry Newman, Jon Spayde and Mike Rose, all three writers believe in having an educated society. Our students’ needs are changing, there are a growing number of immigrants with children coming to the United States from all over the world. They bring with them the language and culture of their country. The age in which they arrive to the United States determines how well they learn English and what skills they will need to acquire to become productive in our society. The task of teaching our children the basic skills is becoming harder and harder each day, making it harder for our education system to achieve their goals. There are a high number of students graduating from high school who does not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the work force in our society. A higher level of learning is needed to make our society literate.
The education one earns is something that does not just affect them, but rather, it affects all the people around them. A community filled with mostly uneducated people holds itself back from bigger an...