The Pandemic Shutdown crushed America. 40 million people unemployed in the blink of an eye, over 33 million infected with Covid and more than 600,000 people lost their lives due to the deadly disease.
The first thing the shutdown did was put a HALT to our economy, the second thing it did was pull the curtain back on our outdated, and out-of-touch K12 system.
For the very first time, every American, young and old got to see firsthand how pitiful and uninspiring our liberal arts curriculum has become in the 21st Century. If you are not an educator, you may not have known how to describe what was going on, but you could see that teachers were "not teaching" skills that kids needed to learn.
Unfortunately, the old D.C. playbook was being run. Just like in "Die Hard" when Bruce Willis is forced to save the day, because the FBI MUST follow the terrorist playbook and messes everything up. Well, we need a hero to save our schools.
That hero is you.
D.C. wanted to place all the blame on teachers, but you're not falling for that tired old line anymore. You're smarter than the suits that sit in D.C. You know that teachers have no say, no power, no voice, no opportunity to make any decisions about what kids learn in class.
Of course the media can try and fool you, but again, you're too smart for CBS, CNN or MSNBC. You know the truth. What kids learn in school is up to the politicians in D.C. and they have been dumbing down our education for the last 20 years.
It's time for a change! And the good news, you don't need to vote, you don't need to go door to door, you don't even have to leave your computer.
Yes, you can save our schools from the comfort of your chair.
Here's how!
Thank you for joining our mailing list, that is a huge step in upgrading our K12 schools. Here's why? Right now, our founder D.Scott Schwartz, M.Ed is speaking with Superintendents and Boards of Educations around the country about re-writing the curriculum America's kids will receive in September. This is very important work, but its slow because the truth and reality is that only about 100 school districts in NJ know who he is.
If you don't know who D.Scott is, let's take a moment to introduce him. It's important to remember he is not the hero of this story, you are, but in order for you to save America's schools you need an ally. And D.Scott is the best ally you could ever want.
First, he has all the credentials you could want in an ally against the old K12 system. He is a certified Principal, Superintendent and School Business Administrator.
Second, he has the work and field experience you can trust. He has spent the last 20 years inside schools, working with teachers, social workers, and students.
Third, he has the innovation you need to upgrade the entire K12 system. In 2009, he wrote one of the first 21st Century high school curriculum's ever used in a NJ school and several districts in the Garden State use that curriculum as a model for their own 21st Century courses.
But here's something you may not know, something that may convince you he's the right ally at the right time to save our schools. For the last 20 years, he has been chipping away at the WALL.
Oh, maybe you have never heard of the WALL. Yes, Pink Floyd. The WALL was built in the 1980s when American decided to back corporate interests and crush the dreams of American kids. It wasn't a big WALL back then, but after 2000, the WALL has stomped out every attempt at upgrading our system to teach kids 21st Century skills.
You may be asking why? There is no real reason, unfortunately. The WALL was constructed to do just ONE thing - stop change. The WALL does not care if the change is good or bad, it just cannot afford anything to be different. That means, every student for the last 20 years has been denied the best education in the world - for no good reason.
The harsh reality is that if the K12 system upgraded to teaching 21st Century skills, getting a college degree no longer becomes mandatory to get a high paying job. That's how it used to be back in the 19th and 20th Centuries. America's high schools were so amazing that millions of people could get hired for high paying jobs without a college degree.
But the WALL put an end to that. Now, nearly 50% of our nation has been forced into trillions of dollars of college debt and no way to EVER pay it back.
Remember, D.C. is running it's playbook. They are trying to fool you. But you're just like Bruce Willis. "Yippie Kay Yay!!" D.C. will tell you that we need free college, that's not the problem.
D.C. will tell you the teachers and teachers unions are to blame. That's not the problem. D.C. will tell you that school funding is to blame, that's also not the problem.
The simple truth, the real story is that our K12 system stopped being relevant in the year 2010. That's it. The US Dept of Education collects massive amounts of data every single year on schools and student performance. Want to know what that data tells us?
Here's the scoop! Since the 1960s student test scores have been on the decline. Yes, the 1960s!! This isn't a new problem. The K12 system relies on a liberal arts education that teaches kids how to read summaries of stories and historical events, none of which will ever be needed in any college classroom or any job site.
You know that, and so does D.C., but they don't want to admit that to you. The WALL prevents anyone from making one change. But, that's why you got the best ally in the business. You got D.Scott on your side.
Here's how good he is at beating the system. How he defies the odds and how he has been chipping away year after year at the bottom of the WALL. All he needs, frankly, what you NEED is him to keep going and you will be able to PUSH THAT WALL OVER, Once and for all!!
This is why 100 school districts know who he is.
His first real breakthrough in the wall was a comprehensive Teacher Development program he created, which provided his staff with 70 full hours of professional training per year. In addition, he single handedly prevented new teachers from quitting the profession.
That's right. Nationally, 1 in 5 teachers quit the profession before the end of their 3rd year of teaching. That's 20% of new, passionate and enthusiastic people, ready to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century, being tossed aside by the WALL.
Not on D.Scott's watch. Not in his school. Every novice teacher that came to work for him was enrolled in this unique and innovative Teacher Development program and they went from novice to "highly proficient" in 2 full years.
The program was so effective at preparing teachers for the classroom that a waiting list of teachers trying to transfer to his program or get hired to work for him began. In addition, he was asked to speak before other district staff, charter schools, and the NJ Joint Legislative Committee on the Public Schools.
Of course, the WALL was not happy. It could sense that someone had put a dent in its facade, so it came to crush the new idea. The State of NJ made a 2-year training program mandatory for all novice teachers and set the number of professional development hours at 20.
But this is America, and when the WALL or D.C. try to crush the little guy who is following his heart and a good idea, you can try, but you won't succeed. With the help of many educators in the Garden State, D.Scott opened up the education think tank, Education Development Institute to continue to provide the best teacher development courses and seminars to any teacher that wanted it.
You might want to call him the "little engine that could," because there is nothing that is going to stop him from making sure that every single kid in America finally receives a 21st Century level education.
If you want to know what he thinks, here's the answer: He truly believes America's K12 system is "so close" to being the Best in the World again that it inspires him to keep going, to keep fighting against the WALL and to keep chipping away.
That is why he's the best ally you could ask for. That's why he is the ally you need in this fight against the old, outdated K12 system that refuses to change, even though you "SAW" how awful it was for the last two school years.
Don't listen to D.C.! Don't listen to the media! They aren't telling you the truth. The K12 system is going to try and go back to "normal" in September. That means the SAME OLD tired curriculum it has been shamefully giving kids for the last 20 years.
D.Scott needs your help. But you need D.Scott to help you be the HERO!
Oh, one last thing.
Do you want to know about the students he has worked with for the last 20 years? Not that it should matter, because all kids deserve a high quality education in America, but we also know that the WALL prevents equality in K12. The WALL continues to protect bias in the classroom, the Achievement Gap, the gender gap, and the income-inequality gap.
Yes, you're starting to understand the problem now. It's the WALL!
For the last 20 years, he has been working with students from the lowest socio-economic neighborhoods in NJ, a vast majority of them were African-American, Hispanic, Indian, Asian, and Native American.
The WALL rejected all of his students. Before they came to him and his program, the WALL told them each "you are not worth our time."
We know this makes you upset and angry, trust us, it angers D.Scott, but he doesn't dwell in anger, he ACTS! He chips away at the WALL. Little by little, day after day, until one day, when you decide to PUSH the WALL, it will fall.
Not that it should matter, but it's important to make sure you know the whole story. All of his students, the kids from low socio-economic backgrounds and marginalized in American society were also classified special needs. Yes, kids with the most severe cases of emotional and behavioral problems, students with severe learning disabilities, kids with severe ADHD, and kids on the Autism Spectrum.
The WALL kicked these students out of the traditional public school K12 system.
They were tossed aside.
He's been working hard for the last 20 years, fighting for kids that no one cared about. He's been chipping away at the WALL every day for 20 years. And he believes that the School Shutdown in March 2020 was the ALARM BELL, we all needed to PUSH, PUSH and PUSH the WALL over!
That's where you come in!!
Are you ready to PUSH THE WALL?
Of course, we know what the next question is, "what happens after the WALL comes down?" Then what?
That's why you have D.Scott as an ally. That's what we mean by having the BEST ally in the business.
This is what will happen once the WALL comes down. First, every district in America needs to write and implement a 21st Century curriculum and upgrade to a full 21st Century school.
We do not expect you to know what any of that means, so here's the 30 second pitch. A 21st Century school is an environment that fosters student knowledge and skills for the 21st Century. One of the most important lessons kids need to learn is that the future is unknown. Most of the jobs kids in school today will get hired for - DO NOT EXIST YET in 2021.
Under the current liberal arts, old curriculum - that reality is a SCARY thought, but if every school was upgraded to a 21st Century school, every high school graduate would walk into the future with optimism and hope they could handle any 21st Century challenge that is thrown at them. Why? Because they would be prepared for it.
That's the whole point of a 21st Century education. Kids need to be taught through Kindergarten to 12th grade how to handle the unforeseen challenges of the future, that CANNOT be done with an old liberal arts background - it just can't handle it.
Next, the biggest focus of a 21st Century high school is no longer boring, old English classes where kids read and groan about Shakespeare! You might be laughing, but you shouldn't. This is serious! Schools are wasting hours and hours of time, forcing kids to read plays and literature without any relevancy to the 21st Century.
It's like giving a kid a treasure map and saying, can you tell us how a map is designed? What color is the map? And focusing on everything, but the REAL QUESTION - "where is the treasure?"
Inside a real 21st Century school, high school kids will learn the Five Key 21st Century Skills. We bet you didn't realize you were going to get a full lesson on K12 schools today, did you?
Here's the elevator pitch! For the last 20 years, our K12 system has done such a poor job of teaching kids and preparing them for the future, that more than 50% of high school graduates are forced to go to college trying to find a career focus. But that hasn't worked out either. According to the US Dept of Education, nearly 40% of students that enrolled in college in 2014 never completed their degrees.
That's staggering data! That means nearly 4 out of 10 college bound kids have massive amounts of college debt, no college degree to show for it and a low paying job, if any job at all.
But, you got D.Scott as an ally, remember? He's the best in the business. So he has been doing massive amounts of research for the last 20 years on how to save our schools and he found the right data and the right research to create one of the first 21st Century high school curriculums in NJ. And that curriculum is incredible.
Here's why! It focuses on key skills, all American workers need in the 21st Century. Yes, everyone needs these key skills. And he wasn't the only one worried about the pitiful education our K12 system was providing.
In fact, Georgetown University published a comprehensive research study in 2020 about the labor market and the workplace in America called "Workplace Basics." In this report, they concluded American workers needed to focus on Five Key Skills, in order to compete in the global economy.
Imagine that!! Georgetown University found five key skills?
The 21st Century curriculum focuses on Five Key Skills? Could they be the same?
We told you D.Scott was the best ally and the best in the business. And we weren't lying to you. Yes, the 21st Century curriculum focuses on these five skills: Leadership, Team Building, Problem Solving, Sales and Communications.
And yes, you guessed it, those are the EXACT skills that Georgetown's report said every American worker needed for the 21st Century workplace.
That's the story! That's what will happen after YOU push over the WALL.
School district after school district in America will rewrite their curriculum, they will transform their school into a 21st Century learning environment and every high school kid in America will be equipped with the FIVE KEY 21st Century Skills they need, according to Georgetown University.
Not bad for sitting at your computer screen?
We know you're ready to be a HERO!
Here's what you need to do!
