Change can be crippling. It can also be empowering. Perhaps it all depends on how we decide to understand it. We can ignore it. We can accept it. Or, we can harness it and use change to propel us to new heights and previously unattainable frontiers.

In the case of American public education, I believe that we have chosen to ignore change at our own peril. As a result, our national system of educating our citizens has fallen from what was once considered to be the gold standard for innovative education to the detritus of failing to continually innovate. Fortunately, we can climb back to the top. But it is going to require an honest evaluation of what caused us to slide so low in the first place.

To clarify, I am in no way saying that American public schools are failing. On the contrary, they are succeeding quite nicely. Unfortunately, they are succeeding quite nicely for 1930 and haven't succeeded past that level since. In other words, there has been no transformational achievement-oriented change.