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America’s public schools, and more specifically Minnesota’s, have an obligation to prepare all students for higher levels of learning beyond high school. This has not always been the case.

In fact, only within the last decade or two have the expectations risen so dramatically. Only a generation ago, adults didn’t even need to graduate from high school. In the years that followed came a desire for a high school diploma and perhaps some vocational or apprentice type training, and there were many quality blue collar and white collar jobs available. Those expectations have changed, and even the students who choose to forego a university education still must receive high level technical training programs in order to earn a living or to create a future for themselves.

Only a generation ago, adults prepared to spend an entire career in one job, and often within the same company.

Now, labor statistics tell us that adults will need to change professions five to seven times during their lifetime and in a career. A person can’t make those changes successfully unless he or she has had a strong comprehensive foundation on which to build an educational and vocational set of experiences and learning.

Yet this is not the obligation of schools alone. Parents need to recognize this fact and work with the schools -- charters, private, and public alike -- to be sure that the courses and programs offered are preparing their children for these higher levels of learning.

It is also important for parents and students to understand that if they are going to graduate from high school prepared for higher levels of learning, graduating with a C or D average will not be enough.

Students need to understand and demonstrate skills and attributes that will take them through a variety of types and levels of learning.

They need to know how to organize their thinking patterns, know where and how to research subject matter, and they also need to know how to use multiple forms of technology successfully. They need to demonstrate how to do all of that, in addition to knowing how to read and write in a technical manner, not just creatively or in letter fashion. They need to also know and utilize successfully higher levels of math, algebra, and physics.

Do you think that sounds too difficult? Perhaps, for those of us who graduated from high school more than 20 years ago. But difficult or otherwise, without these skills and capabilities, this generation of students will fall far behind their peers throughout the world for the first time in America’s history. And this isn’t simply a matter of pride, this is a matter of economics, of what kind of future we desire for this nation.

And all of this started with a discussion of expanding our thinking from K-12 to pre-K-14. That’s because this is where it starts, but for our sake and theirs, it can’t be where it ends.

Let’s continue the discussion...