Public School Education in the United States: Do we need to change our methods?

               Save Our Schools,
                                         
     I am retired from education for a few years now, but still go crazy whenever I see things in the newspaper or on television about how our system of education in this country is so far behind everyone else in the world...and it is!   Years ago, I became involved with a retired teacher/administrator from Maine who had a reform plan that really had a "zing" to it. He asked me to become an editor for him when he found me presenting lectures on my previously published book, Every Child an Artist. I agreed and before long, I was adding my own thoughts to his very sound ideas and became a co-author. The plan was at first called Success-Oriented Schools (SOS). We wanted to use the SOS theme in the title to exemplify the necessity of change, which at that time, was in the Nineties. We reissued the plan as Save Our Schools  in 2000 and the SOS theme was  more important than ever as our school systems continued on a downward spiral.
    Unfortunately, the plan was never picked up by the various Education Czars whom we contacted through the years; but it is a worthwhile look-see for any school or school district looking for an upward change in performance of their students.
     The plan is simple at it's core: identifying  students at the third grade level and putting them into four different groups with teachers trained (on the job) to teach to their particular group's learning needs. It costs the facility nothing to make these changes; no one loses a job and no extra people are needed to put the plan into effect. The book deals with every aspect of setting up a "success-oriented" school; and with a few workshops planned by the administrators who have read the plan, cover to cover, dramatic results will be seen by the end of the first year.
      Finding this book may present a problem;  search for it on Amazon. It's been there on and off and was there a few weeks ago.  Probably, with persistence, it can be found if you research both of the author names, alone and together: Save Our Schools: Change Education to Educating by Ralph E. Robinson and Barbara Ann Beswick, Writer's Club Press. 
   To contact me about education, please go to barbara@barbarabeswick.com. I'll be glad to talk to anyone who is interested in making a change by contacting their school board members or teachers, anyone who will listen.
   If anyone has a contact in higher up positions in state education, any state, let me know! It would be worth looking at by anyone who realizes our education system needs a prod. Thanx.