‘Listen to the students'

Roundtable promotes cooperation among community, business, schools

More than 150 area business and educational leaders came together Friday at Missouri Southern State University at the behest of Gov. Matt Blunt to talk about educating the workforce of the future.

Cheryl Lemke, president and CEO of the Metiri Group, was the keynote speaker for the event. She talked about learning and how it is changing in the 21st Century.

"What the students are telling us today, and they are very vocal through technology, is that they are bored, they are not challenged and they are not interested,” said Lemke. “They're asked to check their technology when they walk in the door of the school, they feel like they need to check their thinking at the door because the schools are not asking them to think, they are not asking them to collaborate, they're not asking them to use the current and contemporary technology. What we're saying is listen to the students and let us actually do the authentic learning pieces we need to do to get them engaged. So it's really about engagement, but it's also about authenticity, and at the same time it's about rigor."

Blunt said getting these students to succeed, even excel, is important to Missouri's economy.

"Education is the most important investment we can make for our children's futures and for our own futures," Blunt said.  "To achieve lasting success, we must build an education system that provides Missouri students with the skills they need to compete in the global economy, especially the areas of math, engineering, technology, and science that drive economic growth."

Blunt touted his efforts to improve education in the "METS" or math, engineering, technology and science areas through the efforts of the METS Coalition and the P-20 Council.  The METS Coalition, a result of Gov. Blunt's 2006 math and science summit, is an alliance of business, education and community leaders working together to boost student achievement in the METS subjects.  Gov. Blunt also created through legislation the P-20 Council, a group focused on coordinating learning from preschool education (P) to graduate school and the workforce (20).

A local host of the event, Bill Gipson, CEO of Empire District Electric Company, said the state must succeed in educating these students for the sake of the state's economy.
He said the things students need to know are changing rapidly.

"If you've read my bio, you know I have a background in computers and I was a computer-operator for a long time," Gipson said. "Today our linemen have to know much more about operating a computer from their truck than I had knew when I was a computer operator."

Gipson said Lemke's ideas had merit and needed to be explored further by area schools.

"Build that bond between the students, the administration, the teachers and the ultimate employer," Gipson said. "That's what it's about. What you heard from Cheryl Lemke was about 21st century learning, the thought that communication, inventiveness, creativity, those kinds of things, are needed in the schools. She also talked about how our students understand the technology that they have in their hands, but they don't really know how to use it to learn. They know how to send text messages, but they don't yet know how to use the technology for learning."

This summit is one of seven being held throughout the state focused on enhancing opportunities for Missouri students and working to build new partnerships among business and education stakeholders.