| | APRIL - 202319CXO INSIGHTSBy Justin Luttrell, Ed.D, Director of STEM and Blended Learning, Pulaski County Special School DistrictEXPERIENCE AS THE GREAT EQUALIZER: THE FUTURE OF STEM EDUCATIONRecently, a team of dedicated leaders and educators from my district attended a national conference. At that conference, leaders from our Learning Services division attended a session presented by a large, urban school district on closing opportunity gaps. The greatest gain from the session, however, did not come from any words spoken by the presenters. Rather, our greatest take away came when a member of the presentation team handed out pens and paper to our table. The pens were your typical black ink pens containing a school logo. As the session progressed, I found myself trying multiple times to find the cam (thrush device) to extract the ballpoint to no avail. Embarrassed that I could not get the ballpoint to extract, I eventually looked over at my colleagues. When our eyes met, the three of us simultaneously acknowledged our same plight. We laughed nervously, and then began to study the pen diligently. Collectively, the three of us hold doctorates in our fields with over 70 years of work experience. And yet, none of us could figure out how to get these seemingly, ordinary ballpoint pens to work. We pushed down. We twisted the cap. We twisted the nib. We twisted the barrel. Nothing worked. Finally, one of us pushed the clip upward, and "Voila!"We snickered to ourselves that we faced such a struggle to accomplish what should have been a rather easy and mundane task. Each of us had education on our sides, or so we thought. But, despite our educational backgrounds and accomplishments, the element that predominated our success all came down to one factor- our experiences. You see, each of us had brought our experiences of how ballpoint pens should be extracted to the table (literally). Our experiences had taught us that caps, nibs, and barrels could be pushed down or twisted. But, our experiences had never taught us to push up. Thus, our experiences became a barrier to success in the Great Pen Plight of 2022. In this same way our experiences outweighed all other factors in extracting the ballpoint of the pen, so our experiences (or lack thereof) can ultimately block or deny us success in the real world. This is no more evident than in my work to advance STEM education. For everything STEM education can do for students, it, in and of itself, is no substitute for authentic STEM experiences. Horace Mann famously declared that education was the "great equalizer of the conditions of men." And this is true -- so long as that education grants its students the authentic experiences required to elevate them to the same playing field as those around them. I do not believe that anyone would argue the institutions of education in our nation have been equal for all populations at all times. History opposes this notion time and time again. However, Mann was on to something. There is a great equalizer for STEM education, and it is the opportunity of experiences. When we experience events and phenomena outside our circle of influences (or culture of influences), we broaden our understanding of the world around us. Justin Luttrell
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