From Louisville, Ky.Betty Bigland believes schools should be hubs of learning for an entire community.
The education professional from Great Britain told fellow educators gathered Wednesday at the Kentucky Leadership Academy-sponsored education summit in Louisville that a culture of learning is critical to a child's development. In her native England, Bigland said children often involve their parents in the education process, even teaching their elders some of the ins and outs of new technology in a cyber café after school.
At Bigland's primary school, Lent Rise Combined School in Berks, England, they do things a bit differently than in most Kentucky schools. Every class, 16 of them, is paired with another country to experience their education process via the Internet and video conferencing. This passion for collaboration helps her students get a jump on life as globalization reduces borders to little more than lines on a map.
"No one is prepared to be or to accept second best," she told an array of educators in the ballroom of The Galt House in downtown Louisville, emphasizing that education must evolve with climate of social and economic changes in the world in order to prep students to be competitive.
That statement stuck in the mind of Chris Cook, chairman of Crittenden County's Board of Education.
Cook and several other members of the local school district, including Superintendent Dr. Rachel Yarbrough, are in attendance this week at the international educational summit. They are learning how administrators, elected board members and the community can affect change to better prepare Crittenden County youth to cope with the world at hand. They join about 400 other educators from across the state.
One thing Bigland employees at her school that is not common across the Bluegrass State is foreign language requirements. Every student in her British school is required to take a foreign language. Currently in Crittenden County, foreign languages are offered only as electives in high school. Spanish is the only available option.
Cook, Yarbrough and the others are preparing to gather at their tables in the Galt House ballroom for Day 2 of the summit. On today's agenda are a keynote address by Dr. Yong Zhao of China, a session on effective learning by Lucy Fisher of Australia and Teaching for Understanding by a Harvard professor. Other presentations by a South African educator and another session with a virtual presentation from England will end the day. Throughout the sessions, educators are encouraged to collaborate and share ideas from the presentation.
Attending the summit from Crittenden County are Cook; Yarbrough; high school teacher Kim Vince; high school principal Todd Merrick and his wife Regina, director of Crittenden County Public Library and a former teacher; incoming board member Pam Collins and her husband Stuart; community educator Holly White; instructional supervisor Tonya Driver; and Nancy Hunt, Crittenden County Extension qgent.
Continue to visit this site as updates from this conference continue.
