An Interview with ASCD President Peyton Williams

Hi, I'm Kathleen Burke, Director of ASCD's Annual Conference. Welcome to ASCD's Annual Conference Online 2003.

We are pleased to present a series of online programs that will preview topics and highlights of the 2003 Annual Conference. Joining us now is Peyton Williams, president of ASCD.

Peyton, the theme of the 2003 ASCD Annual Conference is “Igniting the Passion for Learning.” Why is this theme so important?

From my perspective, education is a priority throughout the world. And during the past two decades we placed much attention on forging new directions and mandates for increasing student achievement, enhancing educational opportunities, and a host of other major reform initiatives.

But, during this same time period, we have given limited attention to discussion on the interaction between the science and the art of teaching and its impact on transforming students and placing in them or placing them in a posture of understanding, how important to learning is for this new century that they will live in. We have also given limited attention to acknowledging and rewarding teachers who try to create ideal conditions for young people throughout the world.

Igniting the passion for learning, bringing together the teaching and the learning, and instilling in students an abiding appreciation of why it’s important to study and to learn what they are learning. And also to inspire our teaching force to become self-renewing learners for this new generation of students that we are teaching.

The No Child Left Behind legislation is on everyone’s mind, but what else must we do to provide a quality education for all students?

Educational change is going to require a very different path of thought than the current emphasis on quantifiable results. That’s pretty much what the No Child Left Behind legislation is going toward. It is important that we are able to demonstrate what we are doing to ensure that the lives of young people are transformed by the skills we help them to develop. However, that type of approach to educational change is NOT what will ultimately change and produce the quality of education that we want. The professional qualities which will change our profession, I believe, will be a deep personal commitment from educators, a love for learning from students, time for reflective thinking for my teaching and education staff, and also providing for the them the ability to renew themselves.

The noted educator Ron Edmonds reminded us sometime ago that “we can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to know in order to do that.” But I think what we have missing right now is the will, the passionate desire to actually do and make those kind of changes that will render young people successful. And you can’t legislate that kind of success. It has come from within the force, the teaching force, the educational force, and we have to put some emphasis and some responsibility on young people.

I’m hoping that at the annual conference in San Francisco — that’s like no other conference that’s sponsored throughout the world, it’s a very comprehensive conference — we will address this issue.

Why should all educators attend the 2003 ASCD Annual Conference?

There probably is no annual conference that’s like an ASCD conference, that’s sponsored throughout the world, as I mentioned a few moments ago. It’s probably the one of the most comprehensive conferences dealing in the educational arena in terms of the range and scope of contemporary educational issues that are addressed. The opportunity to meet and to interact with educators from various segments of our global community is, in itself, a rich educational opportunity, and an opportunity that we would like for all educators and teachers to experience. They will also have the opportunity to renew themselves and, we hope, to leave this conference with a zeal to go back home to their various stations in education and to inspire their colleagues to also engage in igniting a passion for learning in students and teachers.

There are three keys words that we want to see highlighted at the Annual Conference in San Francisco. The first is learning, a passion for learning, and igniting a passion for learning so that we can all keep up with the realities of this new information age, where knowledge is instantly accessible and it’s also the basis of productivity, continuing education, and all of those good things. It promises to be an exciting conference.

Thank you, Peyton, and thanks to our Internet audience for tuning in to one of a series of online programs previewing ASCD's 2003 Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Check back this time next week when we will post another interview with an Annual Conference invited speaker.

Before you leave this site, take a few minutes to visit the ASCD Annual Conference web page for the latest conference updates. I'm Kathleen Burke.