WASHINGTON — Thousands of legislators, state superintendents, policymakers and education leaders convened this week for Excellence in Education’s (ExcelinEd) 11th annual National Summit on Education Reform to share innovative strategies, emerging trends and successful policies that are transforming the realm of higher education for the 21st century.
Keynotes and panel discussions about the distinction between education versus schooling, promoting social emotional learning and academic development, enhancing career and technical education and addressing gaps in teaching capacity were among the timely discussions during the first day of the two-day summit.
“We’ve inherited a system that was created in response to” the needs of the industrial era of the 20th century, U.S. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said in opening remarks. He added that education reformers of the early 1900s would most likely propose alternative solutions to how we approach education in the age of automation and technology if they were alive today.
Offering a historical overview of the nation’s education system, Sasse also noted that individuals looking to transform education should not view education and schooling as synonymous.
“Education is a goal,” he said. “Schooling is one of many means to an end. … We need to be constantly returning to and reorienting ourselves about what it means to educate.”
The current schooling approach of lecturing to students works for some, but not for others, Sasse said, adding that “schools are not assembly lines. They’re gardens” that should be nurturing and cultivating empathetic and life-long learners.
Developing students as life-long learners was a theme of the strategy session “Fast Tracks to the Economy’s Most In-Demand Jobs: Strengthening State Career and Technical Education Programs.”
