Note to President Obama: Want to Fix the Schools? Look to Portugal!

President Obama already knows that the nation's schools are failing a large number of young Americans. One-third of all students drop out before finishing high school. It's a terrible record, and it's even worse in inner city public schools, where only half of blacks and Hispanics graduate from school. This is not a legacy that would make anyone proud: More young Americans on a proportionate basis drop out of school today than at any other time in our history.

This problem is undoubtedly complicated, but one of the reasons why many American youth are unmotivated and not learning well is that they're bored in school. They're grown up in a fast paced, challenging digital world, with the Internet, mobile devices, video games and other gadgets. They watch less television than their parents did and TV is typically a background activity. They are a generation doesn't like to be broadcast to and they love to interact, multi-task and collaborate. Yet, when they get into the classroom, they're faced with stale textbooks and lectures from teachers who are still using a nineteenth century innovation, chalk and blackboard.

American classrooms need to enter the 21st century. Thousands of teachers agree. Earlier this year, several important educational groups urged the president and Congress to spend nearly $10 billion to improve technology in the classroom, and ensure teachers know how to use computers most effectively.

To show the way, I suggest the president take a look at a modest country across the Atlantic that's turning into the world leader in rethinking education for the 21st century.

That country is Portugal. Its economy in early 2005 was sagging, and it was running out of the usual economic fixes. It also scored some of the lowest educational achievement results in western Europe.

So Prime Minister Jose Socrates took a courageous step. He decided to invest heavily in a "technological shock" to jolt his country into the 21st century. This meant, among other things, that he'd make sure everyone in the workforce could handle a computer and use the Internet effectively.

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The children in this Portuguese classroom were loving learning about astronomy. They were collaborating. They were working at their own pace. They barely noticed the technology, the much-vaunted laptop. It was like air to them. But it changed the relationship they had with their teacher. Instead of fidgeting in their chairs while the teacher lectures and scrawls some notes on the blackboard, they were the explorers, the discoverers, and the teacher was their helpful guide.

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Uh...the purpose of this article was to emphasize the necessary individual interest and self-management of the education process that cannot be stimulated by coercive measures. Your proposals seems to run directly counter to that.

Sounds like a good idea...but as a teacher no one wants to do anything about it. Districts don't want to pay more money for the technology....parents don't want to pay any out of pocket expenses, not even for tissue, and tax payers sure aren't going to ante up the money for more spending on education. I LOVE your post about Portugal but good luck talking the American people into that!!! Obama needs to wake up and start helping out our kids....they are the future of America and we are doing them oh so wrong! Great post.

Your insight on Portugal's education system is appreciated, since I had no knowledge of it. But it will take more than Obama and increase technology in the schools to resolve the problem. The ultimate problem is at home were parents are not taking an active role in educating their children.

Parents of failing students have a tendency to hold the educational system entirely responsible for their children's failure. However, they take no responsibility at all for their own children's failure. In fact these parents do not check to see if their children have done their homework, they rarely or do not attend PTA meetings. They don't take their kids to the bookstores or libraries to obtain books for them to read. Parents who cannot afford a computer, do not encourage their children to use the libraries' computers. They certainly don't show much interest in their children's education until there is a problem.

I have personally witnessed this problem growing up in a Black community where I've have seen parents buy their children stylish clothes, video games and other unnecessary material things, yet would not buy a storybook for their kids. Also I have witness the same behaviour as an Admission Officer dealing with applicants who were not accepted in my programs. The first thing the parents do is blame the Guidance Counsellor and the school system. Ironically their children lived with them for 18 years and they had no idea how poorly the child was doing in school until they were not accepted at the college.