THE CHALLENGE FOR 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION A very old Tai Chi Ch'uan proverb states, "A teacher for one day is like a parent for a lifetime." I'm not sure how many teachers in this nation realize how important their role is in the formation of solid values, mores, character traits, and a lifelong motivation for learning with their students. Yes, there has been a shift in the nature of society, of the family, of the individual. But has education changed to meet the challenges facing 21st Century humankind? Former President Bush bemoaned the demise of traditional family values. Former Vice-President Quayle stated that single parents and their children were not families. Ironically, in the 1980 census, only 7% of all families in America were traditional nuclear families defined as a father as breadwinner, a mother as home maker, and two to three children. Imagine that! One income families are rare. Parents work not only to supplement income, but to maintain just a middle class standard of living. The median income in Pennsylvania is about $17,000. Many of the people with whom I work make less than that. With parents out of the household all day and sometimes at night, child rearing often becomes the responsibility of the educational system. My observation is that today, many educators still bury their heads in the sand. It doesn't matter if they accept it or not. The reality is that much of the values clarification, morals building, and character development that takes place with our children occurs within the educational milieu. This means modern educators need to accept the reality of today's society and provide not only content learning experiences for our children but life skills learning as well. Many refuse to do this. They abdicate their responsibility and demand that children accept responsibility for their own lives and parents do likewise. Success or failure in school is the student's business, not theirs. In the first hour of my first class in graduate school, Dr. Siddiqui, an Indian professor, said, "Students do not fail to learn, teachers fail to teach. If the student learns what he or she is supposed to, then the teacher has passed. If the student does not learn, the teacher has failed. This is difficult for most teachers to accept, and yet, if students do not learn, what then is the purpose of education?" I was profoundly affected by his words. Since that day, my notions about education and learning have changed. Competency based education (CBE) is on the horizon. The educational establishment is in turmoil. Support for this new form of learning is divided. However, CBE makes a lot of sense when all the rhetoric is eliminated. Imagine a classroom in which there are clear expectations about what students are to learn. The competencies are described to the students. Each one is challenged to complete them during a given period of time. If the individual does so he passes. If he doesn't, he continues to work on it until he does. There is no arbitrary grade scale to mess with and the teacher becomes a guide and support for the student as he or she works on completing the projects. Early in this century, competency based programs in all the trades taught apprentices how to do electrical work, plumbing, iron work, masonry, carpentry, and other skills under the tutelage of journeyman. For years, my father taught blueprinting to apprentice ironworkers. When the apprentice demonstrated he had the skills necessary, he moved on in his program. He could not complete his apprenticeship unless he did. How many educators today are willing to accept responsibility for their students' success? If their charges don't learn, they haven't taught effectively. I believe every student begins the learning process willing to learn. What often happens is that teachers fail to teach individuals. In the primary grades, most teachers are empathetic and accept that younger children need their support, their encouragement, their "parental" guidance. Once students move on to high school, teachers begin to treat them like adults. They often teach the way they were taught. They lecture, students sit and listen, then take tests and some pass, some fail, and that's that. If a student fails, it's his or her fault. Even with the adults that I work with daily, I accept responsibility for their learning, regardless of their beginning level of motivation. Their learning or not learning is my responsibility. I am their guide and support. When learners do poorly on the orientation post-evaluation, I don't blame the individual. I ask myself, in what ways was I not effective in creating a learning environment and sharing information in such a way that this individual did not learn as much as he or she should have during the program? I accept it was my failure not theirs. Yes, if they do not attempt to learn, they will not. However, I accept it is my role to motivate them as well. How? By making learning fun, interesting, and most of all meaningful to them in relationship to the work they are about to undertake, I find that most learn willingly, study whatever assignments were given to them, and in the end, are appreciative of the opportunity to learn. The day is coming when educators will no longer be able to avoid taking responsibility for their students' learning. If a student doesn't learn, the system fails. Imagine what would happen if an educator were not paid if his students did not learn. Ah, then perhaps, those of us who are in the profession would take our work more seriously. Every human being is different. My responsibility as an educator is to assess how each learner is different, create an environment which motivates this person to want to learn, and then work with that individual as he or she completes the learning projects facing them. In the past decade, the world has changed beyond comprehension. It is time, the educational establishment wakes up and changes too. What's at stake? Why, only the next generation's future!