To succeed as a planet in the 21st century, a strong education for every human being isn't just important, it is essential. An open letter to educators from a college dropout who says his schooling interfered with his education.
"In the decade since Mary Kay Letourneau's infamous liaison with her sixth-grade student was exposed, the reporting of sexual misconduct cases among teachers has proliferated. The amount of media attention - to women teachers in particular - has increased because the public is titillated and baffled by such cases of aberrant female sexuality. This is a qualitative case study of two high school English teachers, Hannah and Kim, who each had a sexual relationship with a student. Their cases are examined, along with those of Letourneau and Heather Ingram, two headline-heavy teachers whose backgrounds and patterns of behavior within the relationships are similar to Hannah's and Kim's."
College students think of information seeking as a rote process and tend to use the same small set of information resources no matter their question.
Information literacy is essential for lifelong learning and empowers individuals and societies.
Our educational system should expose students to information literacy from elementary school through postsecondary education so that it is a habit of mind they can call upon throughout their lives.
Collaborative efforts between faculty, librarians, technology professionals, and others can develop students who graduate with information literacy competency.