The Institute for Education in America

A new think tank with the mission to change the way we educate our children in America. I will be creating a non-profit organization that will look at our current system of public and private educational institutions with the goal of changing the way we update curriculum, the way we hire our teachers, the amount of government involvement in the process and its negative impact, the way education is funded, and much more.

The main goal will not be criticism, it will be change. We have changed the current system little since its inception even in light of the Internet revolution. We continue to use text books that contain marginal recordings of history. The amount of information and the way we aggregate it is completely different than it was when I was a kid. But why do we still teach the way we do? It certainly isn't because of success; just look at our children in the inner cities or rural communities in America.

We will always need the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic but how we teach most subjects have not kept up with the way our kids learn. We need to add "performance based learning"; involving kids through interactive projects focused on historic and significant subjects.

We also need to allow our educational "industry" to operate in a free market framework. We don't need federal bureaucrats determining what we teach. It is not their role, it is we the parent that must be accountable for our children's education.

The hiring of teachers must be based on experience, passion, and competence. Hiring teachers right out of college puts our kids at a disadvantage. I don't know about you but it has taken me 25 years in the workforce to understand what is important to know. We should be hiring teachers as a second career so that they can teach through experience, story telling, and a first hand knowledge of how that knowledge applies in the world.

Lastly; I am writing a new book to support this institute called "The Teenager's Guide to Navigating Life Successfully; What you really need to learn in High School But Won't". It is my way of sharing my experience with my two teens. I am going to educate them on the subjects they will truly need and use in the "real" world. I hope to finish it by my 50th birthday this November.

I hope you will help me change the world. If you have kids and care about educating them properly, care about the future survival of America as we know it, are a frustrated educator, or just want to get involved I hope you will join me. We will need a lot of volunteers. I am currently developing a new web site and will keep you informed of its status here at this Blog.

Let's change the world for our kids!! We can you know; one student at a time!

Yours in Changing Education,

Rich Hand