Problems Seen and Problems Solved

          American public schools can be described in some very large numbers:

100,000 schools

3,700,000 teachers

55,000,000 students

700,000,000,000 dollars

       Yipes!  Those are certainly huge numbers.  Of course, the United States is a big county of over 300 million people.  When we talk about any "system" in the United States, we are going to use some very big numbers.  And sometimes big numbers can make it seem as if the problems with our educational system are too big for us to solve.  But there is no such thing as a problem that is too big to solve.

       At one time in America it seemed ridiculous that women would ever get the right to vote.  At one time it seemed impossible that man would ever walk on the moon.  Separating our garbage into plastic and paper items in one spot and everything else in another spot was unheard of.  Smoking cigarettes used to be common in restaurants and offices.  And in our schools, it used to be practically impossible for students receiving Special Education services to sit in regular "mainstream" classrooms.

       All of these problems weren't even viewed as problems by most of our society at one point.  But then we recognized the problems and we changed public opinion about the problems and we took steps to address the problems.

       Our public schools take steps to improve the lives of all of our students everyday.  We all play a large part in our large system by finding ways to solve problems one student at a time; one problem at a time; one school at a time.

       Nothing is impossible.  Every problem has a solution.  Strong, dedicated professionals in our schools are problem solvers--everyday.

       Be a problem solver!