Education Town Hall Tonight!

Tune in online as the Secretary of Education answers parents' questions about school.

Being the U.S. Secretary of Education is hard work and one of the most challenging jobs in the country. After all, the kids of today will be the future of America. You don’t have to be good at math to realize that our success equals America’s success.

So it must be a big responsibility for Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, to help kids get a great education. Tonight is a good chance to see how he’s doing that job.

Secretary Duncan has invited parents to give their input and hear what he has planned for the future during a live Web cast tonight. Duncan is holding a national town hall meeting on the Web from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

He has been traveling around the country so that he can reach out to parents, teachers, students, principals, and school district leaders. Tonight he is extending his reach nationwide online.

You can reach him by phone, email, or video, during the one-hour live Web cast. I’ll be watching and reporting on the event, so be sure to check back to the Scholastic Kids Press Corps site for complete coverage from a kid's perspective.

I also submitted a video question to the Department of Education for the broadcast, but I don't know if it will be used. I asked Secretary Duncan about the lack of technology in schools, because aside from the computers that we rarely use in class, there is not much learning happening through technology.

Maybe one day, soon, we will all use computers or have interactive white boards in the classrooms. White boards might help make the teacher’s lessons come alive.

But for now, we leave our personal computers at home and turn off our cell phones before walking through the time warp at school. Then we pull out our pencils and a piece of paper. I sure hope the dinosaurs don’t come out at lunch!

If you are interested in watching and learning about the future of education in this country, you can find information about where to watch and when to watch at the Department of Education Web site.

Join me! I’ll be watching and I'm only 11 years old! There’s nothing more important than education for people my age.

—Mariam El Hasan

VIDEO: Kid Reporter Mariam El Hasan submitted a video question to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for his September 15 Town Hall Meeting. The questions was not used.