As a country, we often find ourselves in a period of low spending on education. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan called education “a privilege of the deserving.” I would like to look at education as a “passion” that everyone subscribes to, no matter what their economic status. Without passion for learning, future generations of Americans may be outsmarted and out thought by others who place a high premium on education.Schools should be palaces, Meccas in each community, and a place of gathering for young and old alike. Schools should be places of learning in more forms than instruction.Teachers should be the envy of all. They should be educated, worldly, passionate, well paid and honored in a fashion that brings respect to the position but demands excellence as well.We should lengthen the terms for each school year. We’re no longer tilling grandpa’s field in July. In other countries, students attend school as many as 63 days longer than in the United States. The next generation of Americans will compete against diligent, informed and studious workers out to succeed. Without a manufacturing base in our country, new ideas must be the backbone of the U.S. economy and new ideas are born in those with a passion for learning. Most importantly, the philosophy of schools must change. We should be less the producer of an assembly line worker and more the manufacturer of creativity. Students go to the principal’s office for being three minutes late but probably don’t even get a letter home for a “C” in the same class. We should place less value on the ability to work on an assembly line, even if that line is intellectual. We should stop placing discipline and concurrence ahead of an independence of mind. Real education is getting people to think for themselves. With that revelation will come smaller government, smaller budgets, better industry, and a more accepting populace. With education comes the development of technology, chemistry, science and the arts. We haven’t pumped out a seriously competitive manufacturing line in decades. Our minds, our creativity and our growth of ideas is America’s last and strongest weapon. Reform begins in our leadership. We could start by electing a president who was better than a “C” student and had better SAT scores (President Bush scored a 1206) than our nation’s average student. Perhaps we could elect a president who wasn’t a cheerleader in college.But leadership mustn’t begin in Washington. Corporate donation and capitalist reinvestment into the nation’s education must be the first step. Companies must understand that their investment will see returns, even if not directly. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given $1.05 billion to education; Wal-Mart has donated $700 million and John Walton promised 20 percent of his family’s $100 billion in stocks to schools and educational programs across the country. This country needs real leaders. Those who understand the common good and rise to it. We need leaders who don’t cower in the corner while the big spending cowards in Congress drag their feet on another educational reform bill. We need a leader who will look to the next generation. Who knows if that leader will come forward in the next presidential election.