So much of what we learn is outside of a classroom. We are a product of the environment in which we grow, our home, our school, and our activities all of what we learn is absorbed from the world around us and processed by our brain. Our emotions are a stimulation of our inner self from the world outside.
As parents we often look at the educational system as a one dimensional experience within a classroom. It is so much more to our children it all begins when the door closes and they leave for the day. On the bus, with their peers, in a classroom, in the lunch room the child’s brain is a sponge absorbing knowledge from the world around them.
To discover the full potential of any child is impossible but to provide them with the opportunity to find their potential is not. Some children will never experience the joy of finding that experience that opens their world to opportunity. For some students the opportunity of a lifetime is locked within hidden are the great talents they have never to be discovered and expanded because they were denied an opportunity.
This week in New York City at Madison Square Garden is a major college basketball tournament with the winning team obtaining an automatic spot in the NCAA tournament known as March Madness. For some players it is a road to fame and fortune that others can only dream. They will have the opportunity to play a game they love and to reap the rewards of their god given talents. A few blocks to the north we find Broadway and Lincoln Center home to some of our nation’s best performers.
How did they find their potential, how did they unlock that talent that let them rise to the top? They are all products of their environment they are all gifted in some way and each could be from any small town in America. Funding our schools and providing an environment that exposes students to more than a classroom is our contribution to every student. It is an opportunity to unlock an inner self of boundless energy and creativity it is an investment in America.
Activity outside a classroom for some students is the education that will influence their lives far beyond that which occurs within a room. The quality of life within our nation is enhanced by those in the worlds of art, music, athletics, and dance. Our first priority in education should be to our students and to the environment we create for them.
Too often our first financial priority in education is for adults within the educational delivery system. It’s time we focus on the students and the future. It’s time we unlock every opportunity we can for the ones that really matter, the next generation.
