Accept a Gift-Giving Challenge This Season

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Accept a Gift-Giving Challenge This Season

By Dr. Jacques Gibble

Dec. 21, 2006 -- As I write this, seasonal music is playing on the radio and I am reminded that this is a special time of year. I am going to talk about two gifts worth giving and then offer a New Year's challenge.

The first one is an unselfish gift to others. More than 10 years ago the commonwealth enacted Public Law 102 to support efforts to teach citizens about the importance of, and need for, organ-tissue donations. Most of us became familiar with the idea of organ and tissue donation when we applied for a new driver's license. If we said yes to being an organ donor, a graphic indicating our wishes was put on our licenses. Pennsylvania requires that the donor explicitly consent to a donation during his lifetime.

Part of the act's funding pays for the development of instructional materials to be used in high schools. The Department of Education, in partnership with Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13, took on the challenge of increasing organ donation awareness through educating students. The Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Project provides high-quality teaching materials for high school students.

This training does not ask students to make a choice; rather it helps them learn about the need for organ and tissue donations. High school participation is voluntary.

In the United States, the waiting list for donations is about 94,000 people long; in Pennsylvania the list has about 4,900 names. Nationwide, about 18 people a day die before receiving a suitable organ.

Over the last two years, a lesson tool kit, "The Decision of a Lifetime,'' has been distributed free to 501 school districts. Use in high schools, however, has been increasing slowly, according Melissa Monti, OTDA project coordinator.

To learn more about this program, go to the Web site http:// www.iu13.k12.pa.us/aded_otda_main.shtml or contact Ms. Monti at 606- 1795.

The second gift is one for our children. The quality of our lives depends upon our education. Today almost all persons entering the work force have more choices with respect to their careers, jobs, benefits, and work-life balance than did their counterparts a generation ago.

But as James O'Toole and Edward Lawler write in "The New American Workplace,'' the failure of young people to make wise educational choices has become increasingly costly in both personal and financial terms. Those who are wise use educational opportunities; those who are unwise pass them by even to the extent of dropping out of school.

Those who dropped out a generation ago could enter manufacturing as unskilled workers and find a place there. But many companies, once categorized as manufacturers are becoming, or already are, predominantly service providers.

The authors tell us, "It is not that America has lost manufacturing capacity. ... What has declined is the percent of American workers employed in manufacturing, down from 25 percent in the '70s to a little less than 10 percent today."

The economy has virtually no entry-level place for unskilled workers. Even skilled workers must be ready to change and retool their skills.

O'Toole and Lawler tell a story of the only remaining domestic personal computer manufacturer, Dell Computers. Dell increases its annual output of machines at the staggering rate of some 30 percent per year. It does this through automation and the use of skilled workers.

Six years ago, it took two Dell workers 14 minutes to assemble a computer. Today, a single skilled worker does this work in five minutes. Labor amounts to only about 2 percent ($10 or so) of the total cost of a Dell. And Dell's labor pay goes to skilled workers.

American schooling, despite its flaws, still provides a good education to those who take advantage of it. This gift is not a polished and finished product but rather a work in progress for the individuals who are willing to do the work to learn.

Parents, give your children a gift of encouragement. Support them, push them and nag them to use their educational opportunities and not to pass them by. Teach them that learning is not something done to them, but something they do for themselves.

Finally, my New Year's challenge is for each of us to require our lawmakers to fund public schools equitably. We require our young people to show equal proficiency in their learning so why would we not provide them with equal resources to make that proficiency likely?

The Pennsylvania Constitution calls for a "thorough and efficient education" for our children but our lawmakers have not made that a reality. They allow for incredibly unequal funding, based primarily on where a child lives, which results in incredibly unequal learning opportunities.

Meeting that challenge might be the biggest gift we adults can give to our children.

Jacques Gibble is an instructor at Penn State's York campus. E- mail him at jlgibble@comcast.net.

Story from REDORBIT NEWS: http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=771179

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