AFT-Speeches

In this speech Shanker is speaking before the Committee on Education and Labor; Subcommittee on Select Education. He is speaking on the vital issue of the federal role in sponsoring educational research and development.

Shanker is speaking at the Carter Center at Emory University. He is speaking on the 5th anniversary of “A Nation at Risk” and how after five years there hasn’t been much progress in terms of improvement of student achievement. He says that schools need to be supported by the business community and need to change.

Al Shanker describes the need for experimentation with the structure and organization of education. He cites a school in Germany that has drastically restructured the way it educates, grouping children with one team of teachers from fifth grade through age nineteen. Collaborative learning is the focus of classwork, and no substitute teachers are ever hired. Shanker further cites research that says that of all the ways to learn material, listening is the least effective, yet we ask students to sit and listen to the teacher all day long.  read more »