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Today’s students will enter a job market that values skills and abilities far different from the traditional workplace talents that so ably served their parents and grandparents. They must be able to crisply collect, synthesize, and analyze information, then conduct targeted research and work with others to employ that newfound knowledge. In essence, students must learn how to learn, while responding to endlessly changing technologies and social, economic, and global conditions.

The quote above comes from an article in the October 2008 issue of Edutopia magazine and is exactly the same thing that Mike Eisenberg was saying the first time I heard him back in 1994.

The article goes on to say that there is now research to back up the claims that inquiry-based teaching helps students develop those highly sought-after critical thinking skills and I know that I should be jumping for joy.

My reaction though is somewhat different. I wonder: Is change even possible?

We’ve known for years that kids learn better when they are engaged and involved in activities that relate in some way to the read world. Educational gurus have been advocating for this type of teaching for at least 15 years.

So why is it still a struggle to get some educators to understand the value of a teacher working with a librarian to provide these types of experiences for our kids?

Is change possible?

Image citation: Change, we fear it… uploaded to Flickr on December 29, 2007 by apresara and used under a Creative Commons Attribution license.