Statement before the Glenn A. Walsh
Council of
the
City of
Lifetime Learning Telephone:
412-561-7876
Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@andrewcarnegie.cc >
Internet Web
Site: < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc
>
2005
November 2
Subject: 1:30 P.M. - Public Hearing - Bill No. 1771 - Petition
from the residents of the City of Pittsburgh requesting a public hearing
regarding the need among Pittsburgh's adult, non- K-12 population, for lifetime
education, especially among the city's disadvantaged residents, and the role
which City government can have in providing meaningful lifetime education to
its residents.
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Good afternoon. I am Glenn A.
Walsh of
“The illiterate of the 21st
century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Author Alvin Toffler stated that quotation in the
last quarter of the 20th century. And, it has already proven true
today, particularly in our heavily urbanized society.
Successful democratic
institutions rely heavily on an educated and well-informed society. Without an
educated and informed citizenry, community decision-making is increasingly left
to a minority, and the remaining citizens become increasingly disenfranchised.
Yet, look at out public
education system today. For more than a century, we have relied on twelve years
of formal public education, with the addition of a couple more years of
kindergarten and, perhaps, pre-school added within the last 50 years. Only very
recently has kindergarten, pre-school, and for some, Head-Start, been sponsored
and paid for by the community; previously, these educational opportunities were
only available to those who could pay for it.
Likewise with the Community
College movement of the last 50 years. It has been expected that young people
fresh out of high school, often with no marketable skills, must pay to continue
their education even in Community College.
Society has agreed to pay for
12 years of schooling for children for the last 100 years, even though today’s
world is immensely more complex, with much more information to master, than 100
years earlier. Should we not consider adding a 13th or even 14th
grade to high schools, to truly educate our children for the new world they
will be entering? Yet, in today’s world, the taxpayers complain about the
property taxes needed just to satisfy the social commitment of 12 years of
education!
So, now, we must find ways to
supplement these 12 years of schooling, within current resources.
Mr. Tessitor has suggested,
and I enthusiastically agree, that one way would be for the City of
While many think that the
Internet will make public libraries obsolete, lifetime learning is a new
emphasis that can help keep Carnegie Library relevant to people of the 21st
century. And, the complete resources of the City and Carnegie Library should
come to bear on this new emphasis. Having a City-owned public library building,
with a 250-seat auditorium, completely empty and unused in a struggling
neighborhood such as Hazelwood is an outrage. When the five-year lease expires
on the current, smaller Hazelwood library, the City should demand that Carnegie
Library return the library to the historic
Thank you.
gaw