Dr. David Hopson
On Friday June 7, Gateway’s Class of 2013 will reach the pinnacle of their secondary education and graduate from high school. As with every graduating class, the Class of 2013 has changed over their many years of education, as has the very world in which they live. This is not the same class that started Kindergarten in the year 2000, whether you consider the number, membership, or experience of the individuals who make up this class. Some of the original members of this class have left the district and others have joined the class over the ensuing years. However, this is a class that has come together, has succeeded in reaching this milestone, and that is eager to make their way in the world.
After more than 30 years in education, I sometimes wonder what we could do differently to prepare our children for a world in which we, as adults, are often uncomfortable given a world of ubiquitous communications. The Class of 2013 started their education before the advent of such well known, and often used, applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Twitter. When this class started Kindergarten, Pluto was still a planet; the iPhone, iPad, and 3-D printing were still unknown; the human genome was not yet mapped; and gene therapy was just a dream. Yet in the 13 years since, all of these things have happened and the pace of change continues to increase. This is a class that has grown up in trying times – from the impact of severe weather from the recent tornadoes across the United States, to super storms named Sandy and Katrina; the shock of the 9-11 attack and the recent Boston Marathon bombing; and the dramatic change in people’s living standards as we’ve experienced long-term economic problems. They graduate into a world where many of today’s jobs were unknown even 10 years ago and tomorrow’s jobs seem like a dream today. I wonder if the education they’ve experienced to date, which is not significantly different than that of their parents, is sufficient to prepare them for a world where many of the conventions, social norms, and expectations of the past are modified almost daily in both practice and law.
Despite the changes in the world, we’re still stuck arguing whether a multiple choice, short answer test with the requisite preparation time, is an adequate measure of student success. Based upon federal legislation, the state makes it a requirement to pass a test such as MCAS to graduate, but few are willing to spend the time and money to assess whether our students have the abilities that the futurists (and many business leaders) argue are the most important: self-determination, collaboration, communication, and problem solving being just a few among these so called 21st Century Skills. Thankfully these skills are still taught and used in schools throughout the country; unfortunately, no one gets direct credit for working with students on these important skills, i.e., you won’t soon see them as a measure of how successful teachers have been in preparing their students for the real world. Yet we can tell that we’ve been successful as our graduates do well in their continued education and careers.
I offer my congratulations to the members of the Class of 2013 as they move into this new phase of their lives. Whether they join the 80 percent of Gateway graduates who continue with additional education beyond their high school diploma or whether they move directly into the workforce or the military, these students have lived and learned, grown stronger in many ways, and have prepared themselves for the greater world outside of Gateway. May they help change the world in a direction that benefits everyone.
