Last Friday I had the pleasure of presenting at Decatur’s Richland Community College’s 10th annual Walking the Walk of Diversity Conference. The keynote was given by Dr. Steve Perry, a passionate educator and principal. He talked about student decline in readiness for college. He asked a simple but profound question, “If it’s not the system’s fault, whose is it? Have kids been born dumber?”
He talked about a present day school system that was designed for our early 1900s agricultural society. At Dr. Perry’s magnet school, Capital Prep, in Hartford, Connecticut, the previously lowest performing district in the state, 100% of the middle/high school students now go on to college.
There is simply no access to this society – period – without access to quality education.
Thank you, Richland, for inviting me. I enjoyed the mix of academic, business, city and community participants.