It appears that the hot button topic on the minds and mouths of many of our elec ted officials

and those vying for their jobs centers on education reform. What e xactly is education reform and how will it create sustainable change for our chi ldren? The truth is that the present model of public education in this country s till revolves around a model that was created in the early 1840 s. There have been n o significant changes to the education model since it was installed. There has b een an unquestioned tinkering of the system. Several attempts at reform have bee n attempted over the years. Inquiry learning, humanistic education, open classro oms, schools without failure and cooperative learning are just a few. The adapta tion of technology in the classrooms has been widely adopted and has shown to pl ay a role in the learning process.. The formation of charter schools provides both educators and parents with altern atives to the traditional school setting. While charter schools provide smaller class sizes and extended school years and days, the jury is still out on their e ffectiveness of producing more efficient and effective learners on a long term b asis. While these movements started as attempts to reform education they were me re attempts at tinkering with a broken system. Just as the industrial revolution came about to change the direction of the human experience on the earth, withou t the willingness to make courageous, transformative changes, public education r isks the likelihood that its many small changes will lead to no change at all. What change is necessary? We tend to deliver learning (education) through a cookie cutter approach. We tea ch one way and students are expected to learn. When there is a problem with lear ning we automatically ask the question what is wrong with the student. Learning is not intrinsic for everyone. This is the fallacy of traditional learning. The truth is that one size does not fit all. A better starting point should be what is wrong with the way we are teaching this student? We assume that the approach is always correct and that it is the responsibility of the learners to adapt, a djust and automatically learn. When this does not happen we start to throw out l abels such as learning challenged, behaviourally challenged, and a lot of alphab et soups, (ADD, ADHD). This is not to say that these are not legitimate learning disorders but that they are used to cover the failings of an outdated education al system. No matter if it is public schools or charter schools, traditional learning style s tend to be auditory; that is lecture based. This means that information is dis seminated verbally and learners are expected to learn in this manner. Though thi s would seem a logical and correct assumption on the surface, it is widely ackno wledged that for many people and in some academic subjects, this may be the leas t effective manner in which to impart information, or teach. On the other hand l earning that involves the whole person (and therefore the whole brain, and not j ust their ears) and makes use of as many of the different senses as possible, wi ll be the most successful. Why? Because by incorporating the additional senses a nd faculties, this kind of learning is making use of more of the individual s natura l brain power. It then becomes necessary to acknowledge that there are at least as many types o f intelligences as there are human senses, and more; and these are not binding a nd unchangeable, but can be learned, improved and expanded upon. It becomes obvi ous then that the continued attempts to reform education have perhaps been focus ing on the wrong aspect of the issue. Although class size, gender separation, te chnology in the classroom, and the rest may indeed produce some advancements and improvements, these are changes at the level of structure, not content or prese ntation. We believe that in the long run the true remedy for what ails the Ameri can educational system will not be found so much in attempting to address such s tructural level issues as in addressing and changing the one area everyone has b een loathed to address, which is the content itself and how it is presented.

Bruce Prescod Chief Executive Officer Foundations For Life www.foundationsforlifelearning.org