Such childhood delight and any attendant anxieties about friends and teachers are familiar enough. But my concern has shifted now that I am an adult, and one who feels a certain responsibility for the many children directly and indirectly involved in my life and work. The gap between the haves and the have-nots, which during my childhood sparked all kinds of unease, has grown wider and more deeply troubling.

Rising economic inequality and the persistent digital divide should have us all on high alert for the well-being of many of our children. In a recent Salon article, Andrew Leonard puts it in stark terms as he reflects on the rise of the Internet and rising economic inequality—and how they interrelate. “Twenty years after the Internet first started significantly transforming how we live, society has become more unequal and polarized,” he writes. (See, “The Internet’s greatest disruptive innovation: Inequality,” July 19, 2013)

“Today, the more skilled you are, the more you benefit from new technology. There is no question that for those with talent, drive and access to education, the connected society offers practically unlimited opportunity,” he writes. “But, if you are not so skilled, it’s a different story.” Leonard cites shifts in the job market brought by innovations in software, which continue to rattle the work world.

As the job landscape continues to shift, the mission of schools and libraries to address the gap intensifies, and the work of the key players, teachers and librarians, has never been more essential. Of course, they need support with infrastructure—like that provided by the recently proposed reforms to the E-rate program*—to level the playing field. And, as critically, we need enough teachers and librarians to go around, so we don’t keep exacerbating the other gaps with what’s been called an attention gap as class sizes grow and librarians get stretched thin. Our kids need all the engaged grown-ups they can get in their lives.

I know I am not alone as I fret. Luckily, librarians and other educators are full of new ideas, striving toward the common good for our children. Let’s give them what they need to do their work.

Rebecca T. Miller
Editor-in-Chief
rmiller@mediasourceinc.com

*This article has been amended to reflect that the updates to the E-rate program are not final. Comments from stakeholders, including librarians, are welcome and encouraged via the Electronic Comment Filing System before the FCC acts on Proceeding 13-184.

John Merrow, an education reporter for PBS’s NewsHour and president of Learning Matters, a nonprofit production company focused on education, moderated the symposium, “Education: The Next 25 Years, The Next 25 Minutes,” which was sponsored by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.

In his opening remarks, Lloyd Waterhouse, president and CEO of McGraw Hill Education, stressed the importance of education, stating that lifetime earnings in 2011 were nearly three times higher for someone with a college degree than someone with a high school diploma.

Talk of the Chicago public school strike, which ended on Tuesday, led to a discussion about the flawed nature of standardized testing and the negative perception of teachers. Though all panelists agreed that testing student achievement is important, they added that teaching to the test can be problematic. Sal Khan, founder and executive director of Khan Academy, a nonprofit online organization that provides free, high-quality education, said he observed middle school students in an Oakland, CA, math class who lacked basic algebra skills, and whose teacher was too busy prepping students to pass their standardized tests to address these problems. Jeff Livingston, senior vice president of College and Career Readiness at McGraw-Hill Education, also pointed out that passing these tests is even more vital for low-income students because they’re faced with yet another barrier to escaping poverty.

Meanwhile, Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, talked about the importance of giving teachers enough support and guidance. He attributed poor student performance in math and science to teachers who also lack a solid education. He emphasized that educators must not only master their subject areas, but also be equipped to address the needs of students with challenging backgrounds or who lack motivation. Hrabowski also encouraged giving high-performing teachers incentives to continue doing well, much like university professors.

Livingston also said it was easy to blame teachers for the poor quality of education that children receive, a problem that often stems from an understandable fear that an inadequate education will result in a decreased quality of life for their children. Yvonne Chan, principal of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center Chan, a charter school that serves 3,000 students in Los Angeles, stressed the need to “enlarge the circle of responsibility,” rather than simply holding schools accountable for student achievement. Above all, panelists highlighted the importance of building communities for the benefit of both students and educators.