Working as a city planner for the city of Ann Arbor social change means a lot to me. Every Wednesday I have to going into hearing, to see if an applicatint can have a permitted use within the city. The only thing I want for the City of Ann Arbor is to have a positive change. By one day receiving my Masters degree in Public Administration, my positive change would be to revitalize the city. By having a masters will enable myself to give back to the community, to educate others and to learn to the whole process. Making the first step to a positive social change starts with the school, the teachers and most important the student.
The concept of excellence in education is one that, on the surface, seems to be unquestionable. After all, who would not accede that students within our schools should, in fact, excel? Certainly teachers, parents, and administrators can agree on excellence as an aim to shoot for. The interpretation of the term "excellence" is, however, less obvious. How do we regard excellence? Is it the college bound student with a broad liberal arts education? Is it the student who graduates high school trained in a specific trade? Many in the field of education cannot come to an agreement on how our schools can best achieve excellence for and from our students. The positive can also have a negative.
During the past few decades we have seen a shift from Industrial work to Information technology work. Recently our country has just recovered from an economic depression. This depression was a "wake up call" for many people, as they saw highly educated professionals loosing their jobs. Why, were these educated people loosing their jobs?-Did they break the rules, not get along with their bosses, or loose their cool? No, they did not have the flexibility, versatility, and cooperative skills that are needed in business for a changing economy. They were educated in a time when liberal art educations, and individualized work skills were taught at colleges.
