Better salaries for teachers, particularly beginning teachers, is another. Acknowledgment of the interaction among social maladies such as unemployment, poor health care, sub-par housing, crime, inadequate nutrition, and parental abuse with success at school needs to be truly recognized. Insisting that the schools can succeed in settings where nothing is healthy or redeeming is a cruel fantasy. We at the university should also give leadership in discussions of the meaning and purpose of education. Education first and foremost should be aimed at bringing forth realized individuals who are also contributing citizens.
Education begins with spiritual understanding and proceeds to social awareness.
We need to reassert to the public what liberal and general education truly are and how they go beyond what standardized tests measure. In the rush for accountability, it is up to us to insist that the easily measured should not continue to assume priority in schools on the narrow grounds of scoring convenience. On campus we have a current pressing need to work together in committee to advance the curricula that teachers study here at Fresno State. One role is to design courses that hone in on the content knowledge needed in teaching so that our time with future teachers is used to best advantage. There is great value in connections among faculty from all disciplines who instruct current and future educators.