Holistic Education

I can really appreciate the effort put forth by Horace Mann to help establish public education for all children in America. Education is the new civil rights movement and can be an equalizer (to a certain degree).......... Furthermore, although I am not a big fan of Thomas Jefferson, I must applaud Thomas Jefferson's views on holistic education. I do not feel its simply enough to fill our kids with information from a textbook. I believe they need to learn about perseverance, integrity, selflessness and service. They need to be multidimensional. It's not enough to score well on the MCAS, they need to score well on the MCAS and learn other handy skills and trades. Many of the historic A&M and A&T schools were founded in this tradition. When there students graduated, they not only received an education in facts and statistics, but they received an education in life.