The STEM solution: new initiative provides high-school teaching fellowships to graduates of science, technology, engineering and math.

• Author: Pitts, Beverley
• Position: VIEWPOINT

"EDUCATION IS NOT THE filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

This observation by the poet William Butler Yeats has never been more relevant to us here in Indiana. As educators and business and community leaders struggle to find ways to reverse unacceptable dropout rates and produce well-prepared high school graduates, it is clear that we need new ways of teaching and new school structures that will provide the necessary spark for our students' imaginations.

We are able, certainly, to provide young people with compelling evidence for the importance of earning a college education. Job preparedness is a crucial one, and a college education becomes even more important as new technologies, downsizing and outsourcing change the occupational landscape. That is because college graduates who have endured the rigors of academe are more adaptable and less dependent on training for a particular job. Not incidentally, college graduates also enjoy a substantial earnings advantage over the course of a lifetime.

Studies show, too, a range of other benefits beyond that of increased income, including significant health advantages and other quality-of-life indicators such as higher savings and more leisure activities. A well-prepared, college-educated workforce, of course, also is crucial to Indiana's ability to compete economically with other states and other countries.

But we must do much more than lecture to our children about the importance of higher education. We must strike that spark of imagination and enthusiasm for new perspectives and new ideas that education should nurture. As the documentary film "Two Million Minutes" illustrates, we must put a higher priority on math and science education in high school, and we must prepare our students in a way that is relevant to the changes in the social and technological landscape they face today The key to...